HISTORY. 



09 t* 



OF TIIE 



A CENTENNIAL ADDRESS. 



J{ E Y . Y' ■ jZABRISKI 



E 



" Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase. For inquire, I 
pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers : (for we are but 
of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow :) shall not they teach 
thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart ?" — Job 8 : 7-10. 




Hudson, 1ST. Y. : 

STEPHEN 23 . M I I., JS Tl . 
1867. 



JOHN A. GRAY & 6REEN, PRINTERS, 15 AND IS JVCC3 STREET, NEW-YORK. 



LC Control Number 



tmp96 031427 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Church, Parsonage, and Seminary in their Original Style. 
{Frontispiece) 
Likeness oe Eey. Dr. Gerhard. 
Likeness of Rey. Mr. Sluyter. 
Church— in 1867. 
Parsonage — in 1867. 



w 



INTRODUCTION. 



On the fifth of April, 1867, the Consistory of the Reformed Dutch 
Church of Claverack, responding to the enthusiastic desire of the congrega- 
tion, resolved to hold a celebration, . commemorative of the one hundredth 
year of their church edifice. They appointed the following committee to 
take charge of the arrangements for that occasion, namely : 

Rev. F. N. Zabriskie, Peter Hoffman, 

Jonas R. Delemater, Milton Martin, 

John L. Sagendorf, Anthony Van Rensselaer, 

John H. Dickie, Stephen M. Van Wyck, 

James F. Philip, M.D., Jeremiah M. Race, 

Fred. H. Snyder. 

The Committee, at a subsequent meeting, selected the twenty-eighth 
day of August as the date of the proposed celebration, and appointed the' 
following sub-committees, namely : 

Committee of Public Exercises. — Rev. Mr. Zabriskie. 

Committee of Invitation. — Dr. Philip, Mr. Snyder, Rev. Mr. Zabriskie. 

Committee on Reception and Entertainment of Guests. — Mr. Dickie, 
Mr. Race, Mr. Martin. 

Committee on Collation. — Mr. Delemater, Mr. Sagendorf, Mr. Van 
Rensselaer, Mr. Van Wyck, Mr. Hoffman. 

Committee on Accounts. — Mr. Hoffman, Mr. Martin, Mr. Delemater. 

Wednesday, the twenty-eighth of August, proved to be a beautiful day. 
An occasional cloud and a continuous breeze moderated the summer heat. 
At an early hour, throngs of pilgrims to their ancient shrine, began to ap- 
pear, on foot, in vehicles, and by the crowded railway trains, and, long be- 
fore the bell rang for the hour of morning service, the church was filled to 
overflowing. It was estimated by those accustomed to such calculations 
that twenty-five hundred people were upon the ground during the day. 
Those within the building were fewer than those who could not obtain ad- 
mittance. The whole county was largely represented, and the children of 
the church came back from their dispersion in parts remote, while many 
strangera were there from antiquarian tastes and interest in the things of 



6 



Zion. Among the clergy present were noticed Eev. Drs. Wyckoff, C. Van 
Cleef, Anson Dubois, Van Santvoord, Stryker, Lansing, and Porter ; and 
Rev. Messrs. Edwin and John McO. Holmes, Himrod, Lyall, D. A. Jones, 
Boice, Van Gieson, J. G. Johnson, F. M. Bogardus, Corwin, Drury, Enyard, 
Lloyd, R. M. Whitbeck, Turner, Shepard, A. J. and E. N. Sebring, S. F. 
Searle, Roe, Nevins, and Horton of the Reformed Dutch Church ; Rev. Mr. 
Bradbury and Rev. Jacob Best of the Presbyterian ; Rev. Mr. Rosenberg 
and Rev. Mr. Felts of the Lutheran ; and Rev. Mr. Ostrander of the Metho- 
dist. The names of the distinguished gentlemen who addressed the meeting 
in the grove are an indication of the character of the eminent laymen who 
graced the occasion with their presence. 

Letters were received by the Committee of Invitation from the following : 
Hon. Schuyler Colfax,* Hon. Stewart L. Woodford, Joel Munsell, Esq., of 
Albany, Hon. Francis Sylvester, Rev. D. D. Demarest, D.D., Rev. William 
H. Campbell, D.D., Rev. E. L. Hermance, Rev. B. F. Snyder, Rev. Joseph 
Scudder, B. Van Buren, Esq., and J. L. Woodward, Esq. 

The recess in which the pulpit stands was tastefully decorated with fes- 
toons of evergreens entwined with flowers. Various beautiful bouquets were 
placed upon the pulpit and the tables. For these thoughtful and elegant 
offerings we are indebted to Mrs. John Miller, Mrs. Wortendyke, Mrs. David 
Valentine, and a member of the Twenty-first street Reformed Dutch Church, 
New- York. 

An interesting feature of the occasion was the large number of antiqua- 
rian curiosities and other relics illustrative of the history of the church and 
community. The following is a list of them : 

1. Ancient chest (ante-Revolutionary) containing the archives of the 
church. Among them is a Book of Records dating back 140 years. 

2. Communion goblet, inscribed with the date 1765. 

3. Collection-bag, furnished by Mrs. Sluyter. 

4. Collection-bag, furnished by Mr. John Sharp. 

5. Two old pulpit chairs. 

6. Sundry Dutch and German Bibles and Psalm-Books in former use in 
this church, furnished by John Miller, Jonas R. Delemater, Dr. Philip, 
Alexander Van Rensselaer, Teunis Snyder, S. Milham, and Miss ^Rebecca 
Van Deusen. Some of these are as much as 200 years old. 

7. Portrait of Dominie Gebhard, taken when he was in the seventy- 
second year of his age, furnished by Dr. L. P. Gebhard, of Philadelphia. 

8. Portrait of Mrs. Gebhard, in the sixty-seventh year of her age, fur- 
nished by Dr. L. P. Gebhard, of Philadelphia. 

9. Portrait of Dominie Sluyter, furnished by his " son, Stephen G. 
Sluyter. 

10. Piano-forte, more than a hundred years old, used by Dominie Geb- 
hard, presented by Mrs. Jeremiah M. Williams. 



* An Elder in the Reformed Dutch Church of South-Bend, Indiana. 



7 



11. Dominie Sluytcr's study-chair, furnished by Tobias Esselystine. 

12. Rocking-chair from Dominie Sluytcr's study, furnished by Mrs. 
Franklin Miller. 

13. Old books from Dominie Gebhard's library: 1. John Sleidanus's 
History of the Times of Charles V., printed in 1557 ; 2. Psalms of David 
in German, with picture of Heidelberg, published in 1749 ; 3. Latin Bible, 
1703 ; 4. Dutch book, 1720— furnished by Charles W. Gebhard, of Hudson. 

14. Old books from Dominie Sluyter's Library, furnished by Mrs. 
Dickie : 1. Commentary on St. Matthew, 1640 ; 2. Dutch New Testament, 
1709 ; Dutch Dictionary, originally in the library of Dominie Lydius, one 
of the earliest Dutch ministers of Albany. 

15. Old tobacco-box, formerly used by Dominie Gebhard and by him 
presented to Dominie Sluyter, furnished by Mr. Dickie. 

16. Painting representing the old parsonage and the church before it 
had received any external alterations ; likewise the Washington Seminary. 
The sketch was first taken in India-ink, by Lewis P. Gebhard, (now in his 
seventy-seventh year,) when about eighteen years of age, from which, about 
forty years ago, he had an enlarged painting taken. The original hangs in 
his parlor at Philadelphia, and this copy was furnished by his son-in-law, 
Mr. G. W. Reed, of Brooklyn. 

17. Portrait of Anthony Ten Brook, furnished by Mrs. Christina Ten 
Brook, of Watervliet. 

18. Portrait of Nathaniel Rowley, furnished by John Rowley, Esq. 

19. Cravat-buckle and pair of home-knit gloves worn at a wedding in 
this community 100 years ago, furnished by Jeremiah M. Race. 

20. Two family chairs, 120 years old, furnished by Alexander Van 
Rensselaer. 

21. Horn tinder-box, carried through the Revolutionary War by Adam 
Ten Brook, now in possession of his widow. 

22. Ancient sword and cartridge-box, furnished by Teunis Snyder. 

23. Old picture of Christ's Trial, furnished by Teunis Snyder. 

24. Pair of old pitchers, furnished by Mrs. Snyder. 

25. Specimens of chirography, by Andrew Mayfield Crashore, Principal 
of "Washington Seminary" for twenty-five years. 

Special seats near the pulpit were reserved for the Clergy, and also for 
the aged members of the church and community. These venerable per- 
sons, of whom more than a score had passed their eightieth year, consti- 
tuted the most precious relics of the past, and added greatly by their pre- 
sence to the interest of the occasion. 

At a few minutes past ten the services of the morning were opened by 
an appropriate voluntary by the choir. This was followed by an invoca- 
tion and salutation, from the venerable Dr. Wyckoff, who fitly represented 
the old mother church of Albany. 

The Forty-eighth and the One Hundred and Thirty-second Psalms 
were read by the Rev. C. Van Cleef, D.D., of Poughkeepsie. 



8 



The Ninetieth Psalm, second part, was then sung, after which an histo- 
rical address was delivered by the Pastor, Rev. F. N. Zabriskie, containing 
an account of the internal history of the church. 

After singing a few verses of the One Hundred and Thirty-seventh 
Psalm, part third, by the congregation, Rev. E. S. Porter, D.D., delivered 
an historical address illustrative of the history of the town of Claverack 
contemporaneous with the history of the church. 

The morning service was concluded with prayer by Rev. Edwin Holmes, 
and the singing of the following hymn, composed for the occasion by Rev. 
A. P. Van Gieson : 

Turns— Old Hundred. 

Our fathers' God, whose mercies sure 
Unchanged from age to age endure, 
To thee from humble hearts we raise 
Our hymn of thankfulness and praise. 

A hundred years thy mighty hand 
Hath made this temple fair to stand : 
A hundred years ! long closed the eyes 
That saw these sacred walls arise. 

A hundred years thy saving word 
Hath here by sinful men been heard ; 
And songs of praise and voice of prayer 
Have hence ascended to thine ear. 

A hundred years have souls oppressed 
Here sought and found the promised rest ; 
And on thy saints, with gladness filled, 
Thy grace like dew hath here distilled. 

Our fathers' God ! be thou our God S 
Safe keep this house of thine abode ! 
And may we through redeeming love 
Attain at last thine house above I 

" Praise God from whom all blessings flow ; 
Praise him, all creatures, here below ; 
Praise him above, ye heavenly host ; 
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." 

The congregation were then invited to the grove, where the hospitable 
people of Claverack had spread a table so bountiful that the immense con- 
course of people had u bread enough and to spare." During the collation the 
Claverack Brass Band entertained the company with some fine selections 
of music. 

An informal meeting was organized in the grove during the intermission 
for the purpose of hearing from some of the distinguished laymen present. 



9 



Hon. Henry Hogeboom, Justice of the Supreme Court, was called to the 
Chair. Addresses were made by J. Southard Van Wyck, Esq., Hon. 
Theodore Miller, of the Supreme Court, Judge Newkirk, and John Gaul, 
Esq., of Hudson ; Peter S. Danforth, Esq., of Schoharie ; and Peter Van 
Buren, M.D., of New-York. 

At about half-past three p.m. the services recommenced in the church. 
The choir furnished another voluntary, after which Rev. Ira C. Boice and 
Rev. A. P. Van Gieson, former pastors of the church, delivered addresses. 

The following hymn, composed for the occasion by Mrs. R. W. Frost, 
was then sung : 

CENTENNIAL HYMN. 
Tune — Uxbridge. 

These walls, from dust of distant lands, 

The past and passing time endears ; 
The work of long-forgotten hands, 

Blest and revered a hundred years. 

Small change to them a nation's change ! 

The babes, the brides, the sable biers 
Within their portals — missal strange, 

Of life so writ in hundred years ! 

Saved from the whirlwind, lightning's dart, 

From fire and flood, its spire uprears ; 
To God's high service set apart, 

A temple of a hundred years. 

Here rest our dead, whose chorals sweet 
In long-gone Sabbaths wake our tears ; 

We listen for their coming feet 
To celebrate these hundred years. 

Before Jehovah, slight and weak 

Best homage that we pay appears ; 
His bliss eternal let us seek, 

And life beyond Time's hundred years. 

Thanks for the dead who died in Thee ! 

Thanks that our day thy promise cheers I 
And praise, 0 Lord ! that we may see 

Thy glory crown these hundred years ! 

Brief addresses were then delivered by representatives of the churches 
which in whole or in part have sprung out of the Claverack church, to wit : 
Rev. J. B. Drury, of the church of Ghent; Rev. J. S. Himrod, of the 
church of Greenpoint ; Rev. E. N. Sebring, of the second church of Ghent ; 
Rev. A. J. Sebring, of the second church of Claverack ; Rev. John McC. 
Holmes, of the church of Hudson. 



10 



Prayer was offered by Rev. "William Lyall, and the following hymn, 
composed for the occasion by Rev. F. N. Zabriskie, was sung by the con- 
gregation : 

T&ne— Brattle Street. 
We meet not as our fathers met, 

To consecrate these walls ; 
Their voice across the century 

To higher duty calls. 
We meet to consecrate ourselves 

To their good work begun ; 
Oh ! may the mantle of their zeal 

Descend from sire to son ! 

And now beside our fathers' graves, 

And in their ancient house, 
We, children of the covenant, 

Renew our solemn vows 
To Christ our Lord and Saviour first — 

Then, Mother Church, to thee, 
Thy faith, thy worship, and thy work,; 

Thy peace and purity. 

Lord, when another hundred years 

Shall gather other throngs, 
And we are in our quiet graves, 

May their memorial songs 
Recall in glad and grateful strains 

Of pious minstrelsy, 
That we were faithful in our day 

To tby dear Church and thee. 

May we as pilgrims dwell below, 

As victors meet above ; 
Guide thou the pastor, feed the flock, 

And seal to all thy love. 
And may the Father and the Son, 

And Spirit be adored, 
Where there are works to make him known, 

Or saints to love the Lord. 

The benediction was pronounced by Rev. Mr. Boice, after which the 
great congregation separated upon their various ways, thanking God and 
congratulating each other on the enjoyment and success of the occasion. 

In the meeting convened in the grove during the intermission, it was, 
on motion of J. S. Van Wyck, Esq., resolved that a full report of the day's 
proceedings be published, and that a committee be appointed to take charge 
of the publication. Rev. E. S. Porter, D.D., Rev. F. N. Zabriskie, J. S. 
Van Wyck, Esq., Mr. Peter Hoffman, and Mr. Milton Martin were appointed 
such committee. The publication was afterward committed to the first 
two named members of the committee. 



A HISTOEY 



OF THE 

REFORMED P. I). CHURCH OF CLAVERACK. 



It is with great diffidence and reluctance that I accept the position which 
my official relations to this church and the general expectation have thrust 
upon me. My residence among you has been so brief that it seems to me 
akin to presumption to stand up among the venerable and life-long resi- 
dents of Claverack to instruct them in their own antiquities. The mate- 
rials, also, for a history of the internal affairs of our church (from the 
scantiness of its earlier records) are too meagre to afford much hope of in- 
vesting the account with that minute and lifelike interest necessary to en- 
gross present attention, or secure a lasting hold upon the memory. 

In fact, all the speakers upon this occasion may well feel embarrassed in 
the presence of an orator more eloquent than they. This ancient house 
tells its own story with an impressiveness which speech may not hope to 
rival. Step around to the west side, and you will discern in antique figures, 
woven into the bricks, the date of its erection. The very "stones out of 
the wall" cry out in triumphant memory. And are not all these walls 
saturated with the past ? There are sermons in these stones not only, but 
psalms and prayers, and holy aspirations, and penitent sighs, and heart ex- 
periences. The Ten Commandments ought, by this time, to be engraven 
upon these walls as on the two Tables of stone. There seems a sacred and 
suggestive hush around and within an old edifice like this, very different 
from, the atmosphere which pervades a new building, however deftly it may 
imitate the antique architecture and effects. As we stand here to-day, who 
so unimaginative as not to feel this ? The vision of a hundred, yes, of a hun- 
dred and fifty years passes in panorama before us. The early pastors seem 
to raise the marble doors of their tombs in yonder cemetery, and look 
about for the antiquated pulpit from which they preached down upon their 
people. The throngs of former worshipers in their quaint attire come 
winding over the hills and valleys, in their plain and springless but capa- 
cious wagons, to occupy the high, straight-backed pews. The women, in 
summer, with their mob-caps and white muslin neckerchiefs modestly folded 



12 



over their breasts, or, in winter, with their stuffed cloaks and ponderous 
bonnets, and foot-stoves replenished at the parsonage fire ; and the men 
with their suits of homespun, their broad hats and knee-breeches, and 
ruffled shirts, and buckles on throat and shoon ; and the goodly array ol 
children, all baptized and all brought to church, and young and old alike 
speaking in a foreign tongue which would be utterly unintelligible to nine 
out of ten of us to-day. 

And now the tinkling bell has ceased its clatter in the little, old belfry, 
the neighborly gossip around the doors is over, and the congregation is 
seated decently and in order, the Elders and Deacons at the right and left 
of the pulpit, the Van Rensselaer of the day in his elevated and canopied 
pew among his army of lease-holders. The men are ranged around the 
walls, and the women in orderly rows in the centre. Above their heads is 
a wooden ceiling with prodigious rafters. The walls are plastered and 
meant to be white ; the wood-work is painted blue ; if galleries have yet 
been introduced, they tower even further above the people than the present 
ones ; the pews differ in shape and size almost as much as their occupants. 
If prior to 1780, the worshipers depend solely upon salt pork and foot- 
stoves to save them from freezing. If as late as 1800, a ten-plated box- 
stove, which scarcely serves to do more than make the cold more appreci- 
able, stands raised on long legs upon a platform in the very centre of the 
building, with pipe going out of the window. The pulpit stands at the 
north end, is painted blue, as if to indicate its celestial origin, shaped like a 
wine-glass, and surmounted by a sounding-board on which " Holiness to the 
Lord'' is appropriately inscribed. At the further end of the church is a 
great window, which would look out into the tower, were it not for the red 
curtain by which it is covered. 

There is as yet no occupant of the pulpit, but underneath sits the voor- 
leser, (we will suppose "William Tan Xess, who held the office for thirty- 
three years, or Stephen Fonda, or William Ten Broeck, or, at a still later 
date, Robert Van Deusen, father of our present beloved Elder of that 
name.) He begins the service by reading the Scriptures, including the 
Commandments. Then he gives out a psalm, and, in old-fashioned though 
not unpleasing style of simple music, leads the tune for his choir, (who are, 
as it should be, the whole congregation.) All this is in Dutch, of course, 
and, if the period be not more than sixty or seventy years ago, promotes 
the amusement quite as much as the edification of the "Young America'' 
of that day, as they sit hidden away in their high-walled pews. During 
the singing the Dominie enters. "We will suppose it to be Dominie Gebhard 
in his prime. Rather below the medium height and correspondingly slim, 
with nimble step he advances up the aisles, bowing to right and left after 
the old German custom, and pausing a moment at the bottom step of the 
pulpit to reverently hold his hat before his eyes and offer prayer. As he rises 
to conduct the service, we catch a sight of his mild and cheerful face and 
small but bright eye, white cravat and u baffy;" and soon, with a clear 
voice and animated gesticulation, he begins his sound and pious discourse. 



13 



in the Low Dutch or the German, as the case may be. Though not lengthy 
for the period, our modern taste would doubtless cut it down to one half 
its duration. 

Every Sabbath is a baptismal day ; and yet, behold the long line of 
parents and sponsors bringing their children to the Lord ! One, two, six, 
twelve! and next Sabbath shall, perhaps, witness as many more infants 
sealed to Christ. It was no uncommon thing for the Baptismal Record to 
be increased by the addition of over one hundred names in the course of a 
3*ear. An instance is related by Rev. Dr. Currie, where thirty-six children 
were baptized at one service in the Church of Taghkanic by Dominie Geb- 
hard. These, with the parents and godparents, must have made a com- 
pany of at least one hundred. 

And now the Deacons step forth with their money-bags, suspended to 
long poles, and furnished with little jingling bells that make a suggestive 
sound as they pass from pew to pew. Or, it is Communion Sunday. Rank 
after rank of communicants are summoned from their seats, and in turn 
surround the table, where the elements are distributed to each by the hand 
of the Dominie himself. Nor is it necessarily the Sabbath. Christmas, 
New-Year's day, Good Friday, Easter, and Whitsunday are feast days by 
appointment and usage. Or, it is catechetical exercise. There are no 
Sabbath-schools yet. Robert Raikes had not gathered his little vagrant 
neighbors about him till this building was fourteen years old. The Dominie 
is all the Sunda} r -school the children know, as they sit in awestruck lines 
before him, and lisp in Dutch the long and intricate answers of the Heidel- 
burg Catechism. He is superintendent, teacher, library, singing-book, and 
child's paper to them, and, I am afraid, picnic and Christmas-tree also. 

Such are some of the scenes which pass before us in solemn and tender 
recollection, as we sit here to-day amid scenes so like and yet so changed. 
The same blue heaven above us, the same walls about us, the same trees 
overshadowing us, the same mountains reposing in the distance, the same 
church with its doctrine and worship, the same families occupying these 
seats, bearing the same time-honored names of Yan Rensselaer, Yan Deu- / 
sen, Miller, Esselstyne, Ten Brook, Delamater, Philip, Leggett, Dederick, 
Livingston, Smith, Schumacher, Sharp, Snj'der, Sagendorf, Mesick, Ostran- 
der, Race, Myers, Rossman, Holsapple, Poucher, Groat, Fonda, Emerick, 
Link, Melius, Skinkle, Root, Clapper, Yandeboe, Hess, Ham, Hoffman, 
Heermance, Williams, Rowley, Cole, Martin, Best, Brown, Coventry, Kil- 
mer, Stickles, Gardiner, Bennet, Niver, Storm, Jordan, Pitcher, Lasher, 
Milham, Dickie, and more than I can now take time to mention. And 
yet the men are changed in person, speech, garb, and largely in their ideas 
and spirit, (whether for the better or the worse we shall not undertake to 
say ;) the house itself enlarged, remodeled, and adorned ; the apostolic succes- 
sion of Dutch pastors still maintained, but a voice in the pulpit to which 
the language of the " Faderland " were a strange speech. The old red- 
brick parsonage, with its gambrel roof, which used to stand behind the 
pear-tree in the garden, has given way to yonder embowered residence ; 



14 



the landscape, with its cleared fields, and new roads, and modern houses, 
and colossal Institute, and swift and thundering railway trains, and tele- 
graphic wires, scarcely recognizable. How fast the world has lived, and 
how greatly changed, even in this quiet hamlet, since our fathers stood 
upon this ridge one hundred years ago and gave this church to God ! Then 
there was no American nation. Now, what name so proud and mighty as 
that which we of these United States have monopolized ? Every species 
of war has since taken us under its stern schooling — the defensive straggle 
of the Revolution, the invasion and conquest of Mexico, the naval triumphs 
of 1812, and, above all, the death-grapple of democracy and government 
with despotism and lawlessness, whose earthquake-throes have not yet 
entirely ceased. Methodism was but twenty-five years old. Universalism 
was not yet known as a church organization. Then there were no foreign 
missions to the heathen, no steamers on the river or the sea, no railroads 
on the land. This Church, not having adopted its new name, Dutch, was 
only known as the Reformed Church of Claverack. The denomination 
was boiling with excitement over the question whether it should become 
a national church or a mere dependency of Holland, fighting the first 
of its three great battles (the last is to be decided this fall) between the 
American and the foreign idea. Claverack village, though not half its 
present size, was a great place then. Hudson was only Claverack Land- 
ing. The stage-coaches between Albany and New-York passed through 
the village and by the church, waking up the little hamlet to periodical 
and intense excitement by their blowing horns and cracking whips and 
prancing steeds and their budget of world-gossip. Our shelves are filled 
with books ; our mail comes to us thrice a day ; we are deluged with daily, 
weekly, and monthly periodicals ; the school-houses can almost hear each 
other's hum. Men ''run to and fro"' with a speed the very thought of 
which would have frightened our ancestors, and send their messages faster 
than the earth turns round, and knowledge is increased. "We have grown 
to be cosmopolites in thought and knowledge and travel, and, most of all, 
in our sympathy and recognition. And, much as I revere the past, I will 
not admit that the men of this generation have not greatly advanced both 
in their standard and attainment in Christian life and work. 

A church in the days of its building is an embodied vow. In its subse- 
quent use and history, it is an altar. In the lapse of time, it comes to be a 
monument. It is in this last character that our dear old Claverack Church 
has drawn us together to-day. Not in the spirit of that November day of 
1767, when Dominie Fryenmoet dedicated it to the service of Almighty God ; 
nor yet as this people have been wont to assemble on any of the subsequent 
five thousand two hundred Sabbaths. TVe are met to express our respect 
for antiquity, our reverence for our ancestors, our love for the church, our 
adoration and gratitude to God. I am well aware that our church can 
hardly claim the honors of age beside some of the cathedrals and minsters 
of Europe, which trace their pedigree back to the twelfth or thirteenth cen- 
tury. But in our new country one hundred years of time constitute as 



15 



veritable an antiquity as three hundred years of Europe or "a cycle of 
Cathay." It is meet, therefore, that we seek food and stimulus for these 
sentiments by a review of our church's internal history, (our friend and 
fellow-citizen, Dr. Porter, will furnish us with what may be called its ex- 
ternal or contemporaneous history.) 

The history of a church, like that of a nation, is no mere collection of 
annals, strung together in chronological order. It is a growth, as much so 
as a stalk of corn. For " so is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast 
seed into the ground; and the seed should spring and grow up, first the 
blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." Tracing the his- 
tory of the Claverack Church from the handful of corn on the top of this 
rock throughout its successive stages of development, we shall divide our 
narrative into fifteen successive eras. 

I. PRIMITIVE PERIOD. 

The first of these is almost lost in the shadows of an unrecorded antiquity. 
It is the Embryotic Era. It extends from the settlement of the county to 
the year 1816. The inhabitants of the region included in the present 
towns of Claverack, Hudson, Hillsdale, together with parts of Ghent, 
Stockport, and Greenport, from which the Claverack congregation was 
afterward drawn, comprised in the year 1816 less than two hundred and 
fifty souls, male and female, old and young, bond and free. Accordingly 
the country must have been comparatively a wilderness, having all the 
features of a new and uncleared region. But the old Holland settlers who 
comprised the bulk of the inhabitants, like their brethren of the entire im- 
migration, had two peculiarities indicative of their substantial qualities. 
They always found out the most eligible and fertile districts, and they al- 
ways carried the ark of God with them. The first of these will sufficiently 
account for their selection of the " clover reach" for their home ; and the 
second would make it sure, even if we had no facts to substantiate it, that 
they did not remain long without the ordinances of the Reformed religion. 
The Albany Dominie visited them from time to time, to administer the 
sacraments and preach the word. In fact, Claverack, Kinderhook, Living- 
ston Manor, and probably East-Camp (or Germantown) were preaching 
stations of the pastor of the Reformed Church of Albany. With our 
modern notions of the pastorate, w T e stand aghast at such a charge — a flock, 
too, in the wilderness ! How beautiful upon the mountains were the feet 
of him that brought the glad tidings in those days to the lonely pioneers of 
Rensselaerwyck ! 

II. ORGANIZATION- OF THE CHURCH. 

Thus the flame of a religious life was kept bright among these little set- 
tlements of the Hudson, till by and by, in the ministry of Dominie Petrus 
Van Driessen, they began to form themselves into independent churches. 
Among the first of these to organize were the Holland settlers and their 



16 



Palatinate neighbors in Claverack. A They, of course, constituted them- 
selves into a Reformed Church, (though doubtless many Lutherans at 
that early day, before they had established churches of their own, worship- 
ed with them,) for the exercise of their religion according to the doctrines 
and usages of the Reformed Churches in Holland and Germany. For ten 
years, however, their condition seems to have been but little changed by 
this act, as they were still dependent upon the Albany ministers ; and, al- 
though mention is made of an " acting consistory," their acts appear to 
have been but few, at least were not recorded in any book which has come 
down to us. In fact, this organization must have been quite an informal 
one, since the statement appears upon our record that " the Reformed 
Church of Claverack was organized in 1726-7." 

III. BUILDING OF A CHURCH. 

But all this time the little church was gaining strength by increase of num- 
bers and wealth, and, we trust, by growth in grace, and in the year 1726 they 
made a successful effort to erect a church building. The building commit- 
tee consisted of three familiar names, Samuel Ten Broeck, Cornelius Mar- 
tense Isselsteen, and Jeremias Muller. And the people made a curious 
covenant at the time, actually binding themselves to the church for the ac- 
complishment of the undertaking instead of subscribing a specific amount. 
The building committee were empowered to determine what each one should 
give in work or money, and they " bound themselves to fulfill the agree- 
ment under penalt}' of three pounds current money of the Province of New- 
York." The names of those who made this compact, as they are the first 
upon the records of the church, are worthy of special mention. They 
are, besides the building committee, as follows :* Henderick Van Renssalaer, 
Isaack Van Duse, Willem Isselsteen, Stiffanis Muller, Kasparis Conyn, 
Gloudie D. lamatere, Isaack D. lamatere, Harpert V: Duse, Arent Van 
Der kar, Jacob Isselsteen, Richard Moor, Jacob Essewyn, Robbert Van 
Duse, Joris Decker, Killeiten Muller, Cornelis Muller, Junjor, Matthewis 
Is: V: Duse, Isaack Isselstyn, Kasper Van Hoese, Matthewis V: Duse/ 
Jan Bont, Isaack V: Arerim, Henderick Bont, KristofFel Muller, Tobyas 
Van Duse, Bartholomewis Hoogeboom, Jurie Adam Smit. 

The building was erected near the spot where the Court-House was 
afterward built. To be more exact, it stood on what is now the road be- 
tween Peter Best's and Peter Hoffman's, and partly upon the lot containing 
the tenement-house of the latter. There were just twenty-six pews in it, 
six of them being long pews ranged all around the walls and occupied by 
the men, and the twenty others, mostly facing the pulpit, occupied by the 
women. Each male and each female member of the congregation had his 
own appointed seat, allotted to him by a committee, consisting, besides the 
building committee, of Isaac Van Deusen and Stiffanis Muller. So primi- 
tive was this ancient edifice that the pulpit was reached by a ladder! On 

* These names are given in the exact spelling of the Record. ] 



17 



the 7th of February, 1727, the church was dedicated by Dominie Van Dries- 
sen, of Albany. From this date commence the Baptismal and other records 
of the church. Among these is the first record of an 

IV. ELECTION OF CONSISTORY. 

( Cornelis Martense Isselstein,* 
June 18, 1727, they were, Elders, < Robert Van Deursen, 

( Jeremias Muller. 

( Casparis Van Housen, 
Deacons, < Samuel Ten Broeck, 
( Isaack Van Demsen. 

These were ordained on the first of August following. On the twenty 
fifth of November we find the following covenant made with the Consiston', 
and signed by what appears to be the entire membership. The Elders and 
Deacons are to be promoters of God's Word and exhort the people to 
true liberality. If any controversy shall arise between the Consistory and 
congregation relating to a misunderstanding of God's Word, and they 
shall be accused of false doctrine, both parties shall be bound to refer the 
case to the neighboring Reformed Church ; and if the Consistory be found 
guilty and will not retract, the people shall have the privilege, in full as- 
sembly, to choose others in their place: " On these articles and conditions, 
we, as a Christian congregation, place ourselves under the authority of our 
Consistory, with promises always to walk as free Christians should do, and 
promising alwaj^s to be faithful to our agreements as far as in us lies, and 
we hereby certify that this has been done with the consent of the whole 
congregation." 

V. FIRST PASTOR. 

Meanwhile their first Pastor had been called and settled. This was Jo- 
hannes Van Driessen, a younger brother of the Albany Dominie, Petrus 
Van Driessen, who seems to have been a kind of godfather to this church. 
He was at the time thirty years of age, and this M r as his first settle- 
ment. He was born and educated in the old country, but emigrated to 
America without having been ordained. Taking a letter of Patroon Van 
Rensselaer to the Faculty of Yale College, he was licensed and ordained by 
a Congregational council. He was called to Claverack on the first of Au- 
gust, 1727. 

It is a strange fact that the Church in America had been warned against 
him by the Classis of Amsterdam before he arrived. If they saw fit to re- 
ceive him under those circumstances, they need not have been surprised 
at subsequent developments. Dominie Van Driessen had the joint charge of 
Kinderhook, Claverack, and Livingston Manor. But the former charge re- 
ceived by stipulation two thirds of his service, and probably his residence 
was at Kinderhook. 

* These names are given in the exact spelling of the Record. 

2 



18 



He seems to have commenced his labors at once. They were, however, 
of short duration, certainly not over a year. After this time he devoted 
himself exclusively to Kinderhook, where he remained eight years in all. 
TTe afterward hear of him at Fishkill, Poughkeepsie, at the Paltz, and at 
Acquackanonk. In all these places he seems to have had trouble, and his 
last days were spent in disgrace and under the ban of the Ccetus, whose 
minutes in 1750 speak of his "extraordinary conduct" up to that day, ac- 
cuse him of " falsehood and deception," and refuse to recognize him as a 
"lawful" minister of our Church. What his failings were, and whether 
personal or mainly ecclesiastical, and whether or not largely growing out of 
his Congregational ordination, I have not cared very much to investigate. 
It were best for the children to go backward and throw a mantle over the 
errors of the fathers. It is due to Dominie Yan Driessen to say that he 
was apparently favorable to the Conferentie party, and that neither Ccetus 
nor Conferentie in those days was in the best mood to view the conduct of 
the opposite party with perfect charity or fairness. It is probable that the 
poor man died about this time. I deem it my duty not to conceal these 
facts, in order that I may give a fair illustration of a truth which we are 
apt to lose sight of, namely, that the moral and religious standard and 
tone of those early da} r s was not so high as it has since become among 
clergy or people. Perhaps this is scarcely to be wondered at when we re- 
member the state of discipline at that time, arising from the fact that no 
minister could be tried, and the case of no church-member could be finally 
adjudicated, without being referred to the old country. 

VI. CCETUS AND CONFERENTIE CONTROVERSY. 

It may be worth while at this place to say a word about the Ccetus and 
Conferentie controversy. This was the Guelph and Ghibelline war of our 
Church. It was the second of those great intestine battles between the 
American and foreign ideas which have agitated our Church. It raged for 
more than fifteen years with astonishing fierceness, resulting in disgraceful 
feuds between neighboring churches and ministers, sad divisions in con- 
gregations, tumults on the Lord's day, assaults upon ministers in their pul- 
pits, the locking of church-doors by one party upon another, and kindred 
proceedings, which show that our ancestors did not monopolize all Christian 
spirit or goodness, after all. It was simply a quarrel, as most public quar- 
rels and questions are, between the party of progress and the conservatives. 
The former had constituted themselves into a Ccetus, or Ecclesiastical As- 
sembly, which they proposed to make independent of the Church in Hol- 
land, so that they might ordain their own ministry and transact their own 
business. The older, and slower, and less American party could not bear 
the thought of cutting loose from the Mother Church, and called it schism. 
They formed themselves into a body called the Conferentie, partly to hold 
the kind of intercourse with Holland which they preferred, and partly to 
fight the Ccetus more effectually. The matter seems clear enough now, but 



19 



they were very equally divided then, and were only reconciled by the mis- 
sion to Holland of Dr. John H. Livingston, a great-grandson of the original 
patentee of the Manor of Livingston in this county. His negotiations ob- 
tained the consent of the Mother Church itself to the separation, and through 
this the consent finally of the Conferentie. 

During this struggle, Olaverack was warmly in the interest of the con- 
servative or Conferentie party, so much so that she made it a condition in 
her calls that the minister should have nothing to do with the Ccetus. 

VII. DARK AGES. 

And now ensue what I would call the dark ages of the Church, from 
1728 to 1756, no less than twenty-eight years. During all this time it Was 
without a Pastor. This was doubtless due to the fact that the churches 
were supplied from Holland with all their ministers, and accordingly the 
supply had become very inadequate. Even in the year 1800, at least one 
third of the pulpits were vacant. It was very difficult, therefore, for a 
comparatively small and out-of-the-way church like Claverack to obtain 
any one at all. And they still further limited the field of their selection by 
refusing to call any of the party which comprised at least half the ministry, 
and those mostly the younger men. They were supplied during this inter- 
regnum, as they had been before John Van Driessen, by the pastors of 
surrounding churches. Dominie Reinhard Erickzon, of Schenectady, offi- 
ciated more or less in the years 1730-32. Dominie Van Schie, of Albany, 
from that time with a slight exception till 1743. From that time they 
were served by various ministers, none of whom are known, except Dominie 
Van Hoevenberg, of Rhinebeck, a somewhat notorious man in his day, who 
was afterward deposed. Under these circumstances, it is not wonderful that 
for six years, from 1750-6, no members were added to the church, and 
during the whole twenty-eight years not more than an average of two a 
year are recorded. The ways of Zion languished, and few came up to her 
solemn leasts. 

VIII. PASTORATE OF FRYENMOET. 

But in the year 1756 the scene is changed by the installation of a new 
Pastor, Rev. Johannis Casparus Fryenmoet or Frymuth. He was born 
in Switzerland, (the latter spelling of his name being probably Swiss,) and 
was probahly educated there in part. He emigrated, while a young man, 
to America, and took up his residence at Minisink, in Orange county, (now 
Port Jervis.) Here the people of the associated churches of Mahackamack, 
Minisink, Walpack, and Smithfield took a special interest in him, sending 
him over to Holland to complete his education and receive ordination. On 
returning, he accepted a call over these churches. An Indian massacre in 
that region made him a fugitive. "Fleeing before the public enemy, he 
came to North-Branch, and was several times asked by the Consistory 
there to officiate, which he did with so much acceptance that many mem- 



20 



bers of the four united congregations requested that he might preach in 
all the churches ; but the Consistory in the other three villages refused, 
no doubt because of their engagements to a certain Ilardenberg, who had 
married the widow of Dominie Frelinghuysen. The adherents of Dominie 
Fryenmoet, being by far the greater number in the four congregations, 
bestirred themselves to obtain a subscription to have him called for their 
lawful minister ; but the Consistory opposed this with all their might, and 
the dispute rose so high that each party called in the Circle to settle it. 
The proceedings of the Circle were so manifold, withal not obscurely show- 
ing partisanship, that we can not relate them. But we must mention one 
thing, namely, that the adherents of Dominie Fn^enmoet promised to raise 
the whole salary for him, and offered further, if the others would call any 
lawful minister whom they preferred, (seeing the congregations required 
two,) that they would assist in paying him ; still they could not agree, and 
Dominie Fryenmoet had to go away." (From Proceedings of Conference. 
See Minutes of Synod, vol. i. page ciii.) 

Coming then to Claverack, he met with a much more satisfactory and 
unanimous reception, probably all the more so because of his well-known 
devotion to the Conference party. He was an original opponent of the 
formation of a Coetus in 1747, and for three years refused to become a 
member of even that purely dependent and informal body, which probably 
accounts for the question which arose in the said Ccetus, in 1748, concern- 
ing " the manner of his ordination," (out of which nothing ever grew, how- 
ever.) In 1750 he finally gave in his adhesion, but withdrew in vehement 
protest in 1755, and was one of those who formed the Conferentie, and was 
always present at the meetings of that body. This was just at the time of 
his coming here, the boiling-point of the ecclesiastical war. He had a 
curious way of always adding his age to the signature of his name. In 
1757 he adds " set. 36," which would make him thirty-five years old at the 
time of his settlement here. That event occurred on the third of October, 
1756. The text from which he preached onihat occasion was from Psalm 
34 : 12 : u What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days, that 
he may see good ?" (Whether his advice upon that occasion for the at- 
tainment of longevity had aught to do in producing the fact that Dr. Porter 
has found no less than thirty members of this congregation above eighty 
years of age, I will not, of course, express an opinion.) 

His call, like Van Driessen's, was a joint one from Claverack, Kin- 
derhook, and Livingston Manor. " It stipulated to pay him, first, the sum 
of forty pounds each, or about $300 in all; second, to provide him with 
a dwelling-house 'becoming a preacher,' with a kitchen, stable, etc., 
together with several acres of land for a 'garden, pasture, mow-ground, 
orchard,' etc., which should be situated in Claverack, the congregation 
of Claverack to provide these things for the privilege of having the 
preacher dwelling among them ; the other congregations to provide the 
preacher with 'entertainment becoming his office' while laboring among 
them. Third, the three congregations to bear his expenses of moving, 



21 



each one an equal share. Dominie Fryenmoet took three months to con- 
sider this call, and finally accepted it." His ministry in Olaverack lasted 
until 1770, when he withdrew, henceforth to confine himself to Kin- 
derhook and Schodack for the remainder of his life. He died about 
1778, nearly sixty years of age. He was interred under the Kinderhook 
church, and some of his descendants, the Van Burens and the Kittles, are 
or have been till recently residents of that vicinity. He appears to have 
particularly figured in the councils of the denomination, entering with 
spirit into all their discussions. He must have been a man of tact and 
diplomatic skill, from the fact of his frequent selection on commissions to 
deal with the most delicate cases of discipline and difficulties among the 
churches. AYe instance particularly his conduct in the troubles at Kew- 
Paltz, arising out of the connection of John Van Driessen with that 
church, for which he received the special thanks of the Ccetus ; also, in the 
case of Yah Hoevenberg's discipline, which he carried through amidst great- 
personal abuse; and, finally, the dismissal of Dr. Harmanus Meier from 
Kingston, because the latter was not sound on the Conference question. 
He was honored by a unanimous election as President of the Ccetus in the 
year 1752. The last synod in which his name appears was in 1773. 
He was the "oldest minister in years and services," north of King- 
ston, in 1772. He, in common with most of his parishioners, was the 
owner of slaves, and seems to have fully believed in the patriarchal cha- 
racter and privileges of the institution. His personal appearance, style of 
preaching or characteristics we have been unable to supply from record or 
tradition, even among his descendants, except the single fact that he was 
remarkably social and genial in personal intercourse. We may fairly 
infer that he was a man of great energy and spirit, and served his churches 
with fidelity and acceptance. He had many seals to his ministry in 
Claverack, having received during the time of his connection with the church 
the large number of two hundred and forty-four into its membership, of 
which number about half must have been received on confession. The 
largest number in any one year was in 1769, just previous to his removal, 
when nearly thirty confessed their faith. 

IX. BUILDING OF THIS CHURCH. 

During his ministry occurred the building of this church, the event 
which we to-day are commemorating. The Consistory were already in 
possession of a piece of land, three morgans in extent, bought in 1759 of 
Cornelis and Jeremias Miller for the sum of twelve pounds. This com- 
prised, doubtless, the most of the parsonage glebe. They now received, on 
the thirteenth of February, 1767, a deed for the church grounds (and, we 
take it for granted, those on which the neio parsonage stands) from John 
Van Rensselaer, of the Manor of llensselaerwyck, "for the building and 
erecting a Reformed Protestant church according to the Articles of the S3 r nod 
of Dordrecht." The lease of this latter parcel of land had been purchased 



22 



on the preceding sixth of December, 1766, of Hendrick Ten Broeck for one 
hundred pounds, by Hendrick Van Rensselaer, Jeremiah Ten Broeck, Jacob 
Philip, Robert Van Rensselaer, Casparus Conyne, Sr., Jacob Harter, Johan- 
nis Muller, John Legghart, William Van Ness, Jacobus Philip, and Johannis 
Haltsappel, for the purpose of a church building. The release of this and 
of the former parcel of three morgans was the act of Col. John Van 
Rensselaer. The choice of a site for their church gives high testimony to 
the taste of the Building Committee, Messrs. Hendrick Van Rensselaer; 
Jacob Philip, and Jeremiah Ten Broeck; yet how often is it that what all 
posterity will applaud can only be carried through against strenuous 
opposition ! The change of location excited so much disgust among those 
who never like to see any change, and those who deemed themselves in- 
commoded by it, that some never forgave it, and are not known to have 
ever entered the new church door. Particularly was the feeling inflamed 
against Mr. Van Rensselaer, whose elevated and canopied pew thenceforth 
became so obnoxious to one of his humbler neighbors that she uttered 
the iconoclastic threat of taking an ax to church and hewing it down, 
A still more disgraceful tradition has been handed down of personal 
violence inflicted upon Mr. Van Rensselaer by a leading member of one 
of the other great families of this region. The building long went by 
the name of the Van Rensselaer church. The church was dedicated on the 
8th of November, 1767, by Dominie Fryenmoet, with the simple ceremony 
of preaching a sermon. The text was Jer. 7:2: "Stand in the gate of 
the Lord's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word ot 
the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord." 
Two children were baptized on that occasion, namely, Kommertje, whose 
parents were Johannes Muller and Fytje Halenbeck ; also Johannes, son 
of Coenrad Mauer and Jeertje Smidt. It was not as long as the present 
building by some thirty feet, and had not the front tower nor the wings. 
There was simply a quaint little belfry on the front part of the roof, the 
appearance of which may be gathered from the picture before you. There 
has been a question whether the bricks were brought from Holland. I 
think there can be little or no doubt of it. It is a tradition current in the 
Van "Rensselaer family that they were imported by Patroon Hendrick, 
who took a special pride in having Holland bricks for his church .; and one 
of them informs me that his parents, whose memories must have gone back 
to within ten or fifteen years of the time, often spoke positively of the 
bricks as imported. Mrs. Jacob Whitbeck, during her lifetime one of our 
best antiquarian authorities, was also wont to assert the same, and to relate 
that the bricks were first taken to Albany, and thence brought down by 
sloop to Claverack. The interior we have already described, except that 
there was at that early day, of course, no such thing as a stove. Whether 
the first of the three bells which have called the people together was put 
in at this time we can not say. It was a bell of exceedingly modest preten- 
sions, ranging somewhere between the cow-bell and the steamboat-bell. 
The second' rose to the full dignity of the steamboat-bell. The first stick 



of timber toward the erection of this edifice was brought by Joris Decker, 
residing in what is now the town of Greenport, on the place now occupied 
by Mr. John Kipp. His grandchildren are still among us, and vouch for 
this statement. I deem it appropriate that he who was foremost in the 
work which we celebrate to-day should have a foremost mention on this 
occasion. 

The old graveyard was set apart at about the same time. The new 
part only dates from 1861. 

X. HILLSDALE OR KRUM CHURCH. 

In the year 1769, the church passed through the worst quarrel in its 
history — a history singularly devoid of dissensions. This arose from the 
building of the Hillsdale or Krurn church, (an organization and building 
not now in existence.) The precise nature of this division we have not 
ascertained, nor do we care to investigate. Suffice it to say, that the mat- 
ter was carried up to the General Synod in 1773, and considered from year 
to year without result, until the Revolutionary war cut off communication 
between the Northern and Southern portions of the denomination. The 
Church probably reaped now the fruits of their obstinate independency. 
When they needed help and interference from Synod, they could not get it. 
This division apparently cost them the loss of their minister and a vacancy 
of their pulpit for six years. The only record that we have found upon 
this matter on the books of the church is a resolution of Consistory, dated 
April 9th, 1770, to the effect that they would call for a minister for Clave- 
rack, and that those who " lived to the east" should have his services accord- 
ing to the amount of money raised by them. This Hillsdale church was for 
many years not only independent but a joint congregation of Reformed 
and Lutherans. Its title was singularly enough, " The Reformed Lu- 
theran Unity Church." It afterward became wholly Reformed. 

XL INTERVAL. 

And now ensued another interval in the pastoral line. For six years the 
church was dependent upon other ministers for occasional services, chiefly 
Dominie Gerhard Daniel Cock of Germantown. The celebrated Dr. Living- 
ston, flying from New-York on its occupation by the British to Livingston 
Manor, probably officiated occasionally about this time. 

XII. PASTORATE OF GEBHARD. 

There was another refugee from New-York at the same time, by the 
name of John Gabriel Gebhard, a young minister about twenty-six years 
of age, who had been pastor of a German Reformed church in that city. 
Providence seemed to have sent him, and he was heartily welcomed by the 
Claverack church. On flying from New- York he went to Kingston, where 
he received no less than three calls from vacant churches, but concluded 



24 



to accept the call to Claverack. He commenced his labors about the fourth 
of July, 1776 — the Fourth. He had been in this country about five years, 
having been settled in Pennsylvania for three years previous to removing 
to New-York. He was a German by birth. He received his earlier uni- 
versity education at Heidelberg, surely a most appropriate source for one 
of our ministers to emanate from. He completed his studies in theology 
at Utrecht, and was licensed by the Keformed Church of Holland. He 
was a learned and accurate scholar. This, added to his excellent native 
abilities, his pleasing manner of speaking, and his great good sense, made 
him a very acceptable preacher ; out of the pulpit he was truly a gentleman 
of the old school, social and vivacious, but always dignified and courteous. 
He was an affectionate and beloved pastor. But there was probably no 
quality for which he was more distinguished than his personal amiability 
and his love of peace. In his relations with his colleague and his people, 
whom he found in a distracted state on account of the building of the 
new church, but whom he labored successfully to harmonize, there does 
not seem to have been the least jar or discord, and I doubt not that the 
settled character which this congregation has maintained for peace and 
harmony to this very day is largely due to his influence and example. 

His habits from a child were studious. When on\y five years old, he 
had "read the Bible through." His father, who was a clergyman pious 
and beloved, died when John Gabriel was twelve years old, and this, to- 
gether with other afflictions, was blessed at that early age to his conver- 
sion. 

He shared, as it behoved him to do, the proverbial thrift of the German 
race. His salary was only £130 a year, and never reached more than 
$400 with the parsonage. Still he was enabled by prudent management, 
with the additional proceeds of a small patrimony, to give seven sons a 
classical and professional education, and prepare them for eminence in their 
respective professions, and at least two of them for distinguished honors in 
public life. He invested his money in a farm, just this side, I am told, of 
the residence of Mr. Jacob W. Miller, which he let out upon shares. He 
at one time owned a mill for the manufacture of linseed oil. Subsequently 
he cultivated the castor-oil plant, and obtained a patent for making the 
cold-pressed oil. By these means, and the cooperation of a model wife, he 
eked out his salary and provided for his large family. 

He was married on the 3d of June, 1773, to Mary Gerber or Carver, of 
Philadelphia, at that time only sixteen years old. This admirable woman 
was endowed with great energy and many accomplishments. So beloved 
and revered was she, that the whole congregation called her "ma." She 
was of highly respectable parentage. From the time of her marriage, she 
shared largely the duties and responsibilities of her husband. She survived 
him only three years. Her portrait hangs beside his to-day. 

Mr. Gebhard and his wife were both possessed of a cultivated musical 
taste, and it was a common and a very pleasant sight to see him playing 
upon the antique piano which is on exhibition to-day, while she sang from 



25 



the thick old book (eight hundred pages in size) of German chorals. The 
Dominie was quite a mechanical genius, and, besides his patent for an oil- 
press, is reported by his son to have made a piano with his own hands. 

His facility in acquiring languages is shown by the following fact: He 
was only able to preach in the German tongue at the time of his settlement 
at Claverack. But, notwithstanding the large German element in his con- 
gregation, the Hollandish element was still greater, so that, to meet the 
expectation that he should preach in the Low Dutch, he undertook the 
mastery of that language, and in three months was able to preach his first 
sermon. In process of time the Low Dutch swallowed up the other so 
completely that we find it on record, in 1788, that he preached three ser- 
mons in that language to one in German and one in English. 

Dominie Gebhard's field of labor was extensive enough to discourage 
any but a man of great nerve and industry. The region of country over 
which he was placed was of vast and almost indefinite extent, and is de- 
scribed as "a comparative wilderness, with here and there a small farm- 
house." The roads were wretched for the most part, and, besides the 
fatigue of travel, there was no little danger, especially during the earlier 
part of his pastorate, which comprised the years of the Revolutionary war. 
This region was well supplied with troublesome tories, so that the vigilance 
committee in Claverack had plenty of business on their hands. In going 
to and fro, Dominie Gebhard's liberty and even his life were sometimes in 
danger while passing the secret haunts of the enemy, especially in the 
vicinity of Taghkanic. 

Besides his own immediate charge, he supplied the church of Squam- 
pawmuck (now Ghent) for about five years, going thither once in two 
months. From 1793 to 1814, once every seven weeks, he preached at the 
Krum church at Hillsdale. From 1777 to 1797 he supplied the church of 
Taghkanic four times a year. Upon the death of Rev. Mr. Olough, he 
assisted in supplying the German church at the Camp, and, at the request 
of Consistory, was instrumental in obtaining for them a pastor from Ger- 
many. He also used to travel a distance of sixty miles over rough and 
almost impassable roads to administer the ordinances and preach in the 
old stone church of Schoharie. 

Dominie Gebhard took great interest in the cause of education, and it 
was through his efforts that the Washington Seminary was established in 
Claverack in 1777. This academy, which was the germ of the present 
Hudson River Institute, and Which afforded the best English and classical 
education, had the honor of fitting for future usefulness a number of our 
most distinguished citizens. Besides the sons of Mr. Gebhard, several of 
the most eminent members of the Van Ness family- Joseph D. Monell 
Ambrose L. Jordan, Dr. William Bay of Albany, and others were educated 
in this excellent but unpretending school, whose homely building is accu- 
rately represented in the picture before you. 

It was Dominie Gebhard's lot to see several generations of his parish- 
ioners, and in several instances he baptized the great-grandchildren of 



26 



those whom he had united in marriage. His labors were greatly blessed 
in the ingathering of members into the church, five hundred and fifty-four 
having been received in all. The most fruitful years appear to have been 
1786 and 1808, in each of which twenty-nine confessed their faith. 

Thus the good and well-beloved pastor labored on for nearly fifty years, 
when he was declared emeritus by the Classis, and in about fifteen months 
thereafter was declared emeritus by a higher authority, and released by 
gentle death from his earthly work. His sepulchre is among us, his de- 
scendants are many of them still around the old homestead, and his works 
survive him. It does us good to contemplate a life like this, so modest, so 
gentle, so useful, so honorable, and so prosperous, and going out in a ripe 
old age amid the scenes and results of a life-long labor. 

Ten years before the close of Dominie Gebhard's ministry it began to be 
evident both to his people and himself, that his failing energies were insuffi- 
cient for the care of this great charge. A new era had also been intro- 
duced with the rising generation. The people were becoming American- 
ized, and the English language was fast bringing all others into disuse, 
so that many of the young people but imperfectly understood the Dutch 
and German in which the old Dominie almost exclusively preached, and 
still more of them were beginning to feel restless at this retention of a 
foreign and nearly obsolete tongue. It was accordingly decided to call a col- 
league, who should take the burden of the work upon himself and should 
also preach in English. The choice of Dominie Gebhard and of the 
church alike fell upon a young man who had just graduated from the 
seminary at New-Brunswick, in the fourth class which had gone forth 
from that institution. 

XIII. PASTORATE OF SLUYTER. 

Richard Sluyter was then twenty-seven years of age, in the full vigor 
of manhood, and possessed with an absorbing zeal for the salvation of 
men. Converted early in life, that life was one continuous and cheerful 
sacrifice to his Master's work. Endowed with talents, energy, and per- 
sonal qualities which would have made him eminently successful in any 
secular pursuit and enabled him to accumulate for himself and family a 
far more adequate support and patrimony, he chose the self-denying work 
of the ministry with a full consciousness of the cost, and counted it all 
joy to be able to do so from the first until the last. His portraits, which 
are in possession of many of you, are said to give a good impression of 
his appearance in the prime of life. His frame was large and vigorous, 
at least six feet in height, his step quick, and his manner full of life and 
heartiness. His features were marked, and indicated character. His eyes 
were dark and keen, his hair, which was also dark but scanty, was drawn 
together on the top of his head, and hung in profusion at the back. 
Around his neck he wore a full white scarf. He was naturally attentive 
to his dress and personal appearance. There was something commanding 



27 



and martial in his gait and aspect, so that he would sometimes be taken 
for a military officer. Every thing about him indicated a robust nature, 
both physical and moral. His character was marked by untiring energy, 
hopefulness and courage, simplicity and generosity. This latter quality 
frequently led him to help others to his own detriment, and his confiding 
unsuspiciousness was sometimes taken advantage of by impostors. I 
have a begging letter in my possession which was sent to him by some 
one who had the audacity to represent himself as a brother of Dr. Living- 
ston, and I am told that Mr. Sluyter could hardly be restrained from send- 
ing money, even though assured that no such person existed. He was the 
life of home and the social circle. His family government was a fine com- 
bination of firmness and familiarity. He even took the pains to prepare 
written rules for their guidance. He was exuberantly hospitable, and 
during revival meetings at the church would convert his house into a sort 
of free hotel, for the lodging and provisioning of those who came from a 
distance. 

His characteristics and tastes eminently qualified him for pastoral 
work. The same courteous gentleman with all classes ; without partiality ; 
entering the abodes of his people without the least ceremony, and making 
old and young, rich and poor, feel at home in his presence ; apt in speech, 
and sympathetic amid sickness or sorrow; faithful to bring the Gospel to 
bear individually upon all his parishioners, he was the model of a pastor. 
He could say, near the close of his life, " I have never feared the face of 
man in the discharge of duty." No less distinguished a servant of God 
than David Abeel traced his first religious impressions to Mr. Sluyter's 
personal influence. And here was the secret of his strength and success. 
When he entered upon his work, he cast a keen and thoughtful glance 
over the field. He saw an immense district of country more than fifteen 
miles square, and comprising over five hundred families. According to 
the testimony of a young member of the church who afterward entered 
the ministry, the moral and religious aspect of things was as follows : 
" Discipline was altogether out of the question, and it was no uncommon 
thing for church members to engage in horse-racing and other like gambols." 

He saw that the great need was a thorough and extensive revival of re- 
ligion. And he was heart and soul a revival man, and was eager for the 
harvest joy of revival work. And the means requisite to obtain this result 
were seen with equal clearness to be aggressive and evangelistic. It would 
not suffice to remain in his pulpit and perform the ordinary routine of 
church services. He must go out among these wandering sheep like a 
good shepherd. He foresaw that, if he undertook this work, it would leave 
but little time for study and preparation for his pulpit duties. He must 
bid farewell, therefore, to the hope of human applause and the highest ex- 
cellence as a pulpit orator. But, again, he was equal to the test of self- 
sacrifice.. He went everywhere, preaching the word, often for months to- 
gether holding neighborhood meetings every night in the week, being ab- 



28 



sent from home for two or three nights together, and visiting house after 
house during the day. 

Nor was he disappointed in the result. Notwithstanding the opposition 
which he experienced from an ungodly world, and too often from lukewarm 
and unbelieving Christians, there commenced, in 1821, the first of a series 
of awakenings, some of them local and others extending over the whole 
congregation, which continued throughout his ministry. 

This first revival, beginning in prayer at the village, extended through- 
out all the church and lasted for three years. One hundred and twenty- 
five were added to the church in a single year. Again, in 1831, '33, '35, 
'38, and '42, there were great religious interest and large additions. This 
last was a little more than a year before his death, and fitly crowned his 
life-harvest. More than two hundred and fifty were brought into the 
church. It w T as a period, also, of epidemic at Melienville, and his excessive 
labors at this time probably had much to do in hastening the progress of 
the secret disease wdiich caused his death. 

But the revival which seemed to afford him the greatest satisfaction was 
that of 1838, which commenced about the middle of January, was mainly 
prevalent in the Melienville district, (then called Centreville,) and re- 
sulted in the formation of that church with a revival impetus which it 
has never lost. We take this as a specimen, and add his own account 
of the work : " For some weeks previous to the breaking out of the 
work, much solemnity prevailed under the preaching of the word, and 
an uncommon spirit of prayer among Christians. Two little praying 
bands, separated about ^a mile apart, formed a purpose of coming together 
in one meeting, and to pra}'- every night in succession during one week 
for the outpouring of the Spirit, to begin on Wednesday. This pious 
design was introduced by a request that I should come and preach in the 
neighborhood once or twice that week, which was done on Monday and 
Tuesday evenings preceding. A deep interest was very evidently felt, and 
much of divine influence was realized by many hearts. On the night of 
the fourth meeting for prayer in succession, the Holy Spirit seemed to 
come down as on the day of Pentecost, and filled the place where they 
were assembled. It was a memorable night, and something like twenty- 
one souls were brought under deep conviction and cried out for mercy. I 
entered into the field on the following week, and great power from on high 
reigned over, the entire community ; and in the space of two weeks more 
than sixty souls w 7 cre rejoicing in hope. A protracted meeting w T as held in 
the church, and the work spread over the congregation generally, so that 
in every part of it some precious souls were converted, and the people in 
the whole region around were impressed." 

Thus, while the great event of Fryenmoet's ministry w T as the building of 
this house, and that of Gebhard to harmonize and consolidate the church, 
the special work of Sluyter was, under God, to quicken this immense 
body into a new and fervent spiritual life. During his ministry of twenty- 
eight years nearly one thousand one hundred were received into the com- 



4 



29 



munion of this church, (an average of about forty a year,) besides large 
numbers who united with other churches. 

I would not have it supposed from aught that I have said that Mr. Sluy- 
ter was an inferior preacher. No man with such a nature could fail to be 
powerful in the pulpit. Nor could such results follow from aught else 
than powerful preaching. Although unstudied, his sermons were emi- 
nently scriptural, clear, direct, and fervent. His " manner and language 
were earnest and impassioned, and fixed the attention of his hearers." 
The fact is, he had that unction from heaven which arises from a realizing 
faith in eternal realities and the love of the soul, and without which no 
learning or eloquence will be aught else than as water spilt upon the 
the ground. More particularly did these powerful and useful qualities dis- 
play themselves in the more informal addresses and lectures of the neigh- 
borhood meeting. Here, and by his persuasive appeals and expostulations 
while he went from house to house, was his great work mainly done. 

Mr. Sluyter was greatly interested in the cause of Christian education. 
He assisted from his own means a number of indigent youth to obtain in- 
struction. He established the Claverack Academy, of which Eev. John 
S. Mabon was for some years the principal. This was the immediate fore- 
runner of the Institute. 

A great work which Mr. Sluyter did for Claverack was the establishment 
of Sabbath-schools. Strange to say, he met with opposition in this work, 
and "actually paid from his own funds Mr. Wymans, the district teacher, 
to take charge of and give instruction. He procured a small building, and 
taught himself the colored people in the truths of the Gospel in language 
adapted to their capacities on Sabbath afternoons, having first called upon 
their masters soliciting the privilege. He expended one hundred dollars 
in having catechisms printed to furnish the different neighborhoods of his 
congregation with catechetical instruction ; and he often bought hymn- 
books and presented them to the young people to induce them to join the 
choir. He was himself, like his predecessor, a gifted musician. His voice 
in singing was so exquisitely soft and melodious as to have become noted 
even where he was personally unknown, and persons who took no interest 
in religion would come to church in the most rainy weather simply to hear 
the Dominie sing. 

His personal piety may be conjectured from what has been already 
said. He was a man who lived religion as well as preached it, and this 
was the great secret of his power and usefulness. He was eminently a man 
of prayer. On one occasion, when his house had been saved from a con- 
flagration which broke out at midnight, he spent the entire remainder of 
the night in devotional exercises, praying and singing with his family, and 
afterward alone in his study. During his last sickness he spent several 
days in deep heart- searchings and heart-sifting, refusing to receive visitors 
till he had settled beyond a peradventure the security of his hope. The 
scenes in his dying chamber were invested with a heavenly beauty. He 
was another Jacob as he prayed, blessing his children. 



30 



Before his death the overgrown congregation was abridged within rea- 
sonable limits by the separation of Hillsdale and Ghent, and the formation 
of churches in Hudson, Greenport, West-Ghent, Chatham, and Mellenville, 
to all of which enterprises Dominie Sluyter lent his cordial sympathy and 
cooperation. In fact, some of them w^ould probably have never originated 
or succeeded without his efforts. 

When Mr. Sluyter came to Claverack, he found that the church, although 
nominally connected with our denomination, had never really placed itself 
under the jurisdiction of its Synod or of any Classis, and maintained a 
kind of independency. A list of churches under the control of Synod, 
presented to that body in 1800, makes no mention of Claverack. Various 
attempts had been made, especially by Dominie Gebhard, to obtain their 
adhesion, but without avail. Mr. Sluyter made it a condition of his accept- 
ance that they should unite with the Classis of Rensselaer, and to him 
belongs the honor, as Dominie Gebhard expressly testifies, of making this 
a constituent and loyal member of our Reformed Dutch Church. 

It may here be remarked with regard to his settlement at Claverack, 
that he received at the same time a flattering call from the churches of 
Bethlehem and Coeymans, but preferred Claverack. To the exertions of 
the Philips family (especially William G. and John G.) seems to be particu- 
larly due the credit of obtaining Dominie Sluyter's services. Mr. Anthony 
Poucher also took an active part. His salary was about $900, without 
a house. 

This building was altered and improved during the first year of his 
pastorate, a new pulpit was built and placed in the front of the church 
between the doors, galleries were introduced, and the pews were con- 
siderably modernized. In fact, the advent of Mr. Sluyter constituted the 
beginning of w r hat may be called the modern era of the church. What 
with all these changes and revivals and English preaching, a new regime 
was inaugurated. 

At last, this apostolic man, worn out with incessant labors, succumbed 
before an insidious and painful disease, which was not ascertained to be 
cancer in the stomach until after his death. That event occurred on the 
25th of Juty, 1843. Fifty-six years previously he had been born in the 
neighboring town of Nassau. Twenty-eight years previously he had been 
installed by the Classis of Rensselaer as Pastor of this church and Hills- 
dale. He had been sole Pastor of Claverack for eighteen years, had served 
Hillsdale nine years, and Ghent seven. For more than a year he suffered 
extreme debility and almost constant pain, but preached on until within 
six months of his death. Among his last words were these, which may 
well impress the minds of all the unconverted before me, some of whom 
have sat under his ministry. After expressing his sense of security and 
preparation for another world, he added: "It is a poor time to make our 
peace with God in a dying hour, and a death-bed is a poor place to begin such 
a work." Mr. Sluyter married, in the year after his settlement at Claverack, 
Lydia M. W., a daughter of Hon. James Schureman, a distinguished citi- 



31 



zen of New-Jersey — a lady whom a kind Providence has spared to this 
day, and of whom, on account of her presence, a sense of delicacy forbids 
our speaking particularly, though our great love and admiration would 
lead us to say much. 

We have also present to-day one who may well be entitled to be re- 
garded as a relic and a representative of Mr. Sluyter's ministry. In look- 
ing over the Minutes of Consistory the other day, I found the following 
record for May 19th, 1838 : " Whereas, The good order and decency of the 
worship of God's house depend on the faithfulness of a man of suitable 
character, and Nicholas S. Race, a member of this church, has been men- 
tioned as a proper person to fill this office — therefore, Resolved, That N. S. 
Race be, and hereby is, appointed to be the Sexton of the Reformed Dutch 
church of Claverack, for five months from the 1st of May, 1838. " We 
need make no further commentary on this than to state that these five 
months were lengthened out to twenty-nine years, and that then Mr. Race 
only retired on account of the rest which his advancing years rendered 
necessary. We are glad to welcome this faithful old servant of the church 
among us to-day. 

Of the Pastors who have succeeded Mr. Sluyter, and who survive to 
celebrate this day with us, the time has hardly come to speak with the 
same freedom, nor does it need as minute a mention. 

XIY. REV. IRA CONDICT ROICE 

Commenced his labors on the 1st of January, 1844. He had graduated 
from our seminary in the class of 1826, with the missionary David Abeel 
and Benjamin P. Westfall, a child of this church. He had previously been 
settled at Salem in Albany county for three years, at Bergen Neck in New- 
Jersey for thirteen years. He served chis church for fifteen years with a 
fidelity and usefulness to which there are a cloud of witnesses to-day to 
testify. One hundred and thirteen members were added to the church. 
A new parsonage was built, which is not surpassed in beauty of situation 
or tastefulness and pleasantness of surroundings by any parsonage in our 
denomination. This edifice was greatly enlarged and improved. These 
wings have been added, these galleries erected for the accommodation of 
the students, and modern pews introduced. A new pulpit was erected at 
the back of the church. To his zeal and taste are we mainly indebted for 
these great improvements. The large scale on which the church is built 
and its grounds laid out, and the beauty of the parsonage, are the subject 
of just admiration from all visitors to Claverack. A change in the tenure 
of most of the pews was also made, whereby the Consistory have been able 
nearly to double the income of the church and provide more adequately 
for the support of the ministry. The Institute in its present scheme and 
dimensions is due to the personal exertions and foresight of Mr. Boice. 
His ministry inaugurated here a new era of material prosperity and gen- 
erous care for the house of God. 



32 



XV. REV. A. P. VAN GIESON 

Graduated at the Theological Seminary at New-Brunswick, in the class 
of 1852, was licensed by the Classis of Bergen in the same year, and 
served the church of Catskill for the space of three years and the church 
of Brooklyn for four years. He commenced his labors here at the close of 
the year 1859, and served them until the 19th of December, 1865, when he 
was dismissed to take charge of the church of Greenpoint. The noble 
personal qualities of Brother Van Gieson, who has been my college-mate 
and friend of many years, the grand sermons he preached from this 
desk, the mingled gentleness and firmness of his intercourse among you, 
are too well known to need eulogy or mention at my hands. The speaker, 
deeply and gratefully impressed with the obligations which he owes to all 
those men of God into whose labors he has entered, takes peculiar 
pleasure to-day in acknowledging the broad and substantial foundation 
laid for him by his immediate predecessors. During the last few months 
of his pastorate, Mr. Van Gieson, by his personal exertions, lifted a debt of 
$1800 from the church. His people will ever remember him with pride 
and affection, and sympathize with the sorrowful domestic afflictions which 
darkened the last days of his ministry among them. 

The present pastor was installed on the 3d of May, 1886. This brings 
us to the centennial year of our church, to whose close we will have come 
on the 8th of November next. It has been a year which, in the provi- 
dence and grace of God, and by the active and liberal zeal of the church, 
fitly ends this century of grace, of mercy, and of peace. This venerable 
building has been again thoroughly repaired and adorned, particularly by 
the frescoing of the walls and ceilings, the introduction of new windows, 
and the painting both of the interior and exterior. Those who recall the 
improvement will best appreciate the change. It was a pious and a decent 
tribute to the dear old church of our ancestors — a centennial celebration 
better than all speeches or anthems, or glorification of the fathers. The 
adornment and improvement of the present is ever the best tribute we can 
pay the past. But God has still more strikingly commemorated our church's 
centenary. The past year has been crowned with his glory by one of the 
most blessed and powerful revivals in its history. Since the 31st of 
August last, about seventy have been added to the church on confession 
of their faith. Those whose privilege it was to mingle in the solemn and 
glorious scenes of last winter, in all these neighborhood meetings, will 
never cease to thank God, and take courage for the work of another century. 

Thus have I striven to tell the tale of this primitive and storied church, 
so far as the limits of a discourse like this will permit. But I have only 
given a surface view, and pointed out the chief headlands of its history. 
Who shall measure or describe the strong current of its spiritual and in- 
dividual life which has flowed on underneath — the soul-histories which no 
eye but God's has marked, and which the disclosures of eternity alone can 
reveal? Every one of the ten thousand who have worshiped in this 



33 



bouse has had a personal experience and an individual doom. All the 
books of earth could hardly contain the record. The two books of final 
account shall unfold it in its minutest particular. Before our own tale is 
fully told, dear hearers, let us make sure that we are written in the Book of 
Life. 

These centennial trees with which our church grounds have been 
planted, and those ancient oaks which have grown silently and steadily 
amid the snows and sunshine of by-gone centuries, suggest the truth 
that the life of a church is like their own, in the fact of its continuous 
and connected growth, which may be traced by its eras as a tree by 
its concentric rings. Better than these trees, because of the fruit which it 
has borne. Thousands of precious souls have been here born again, and 
educated for heaven. They are about us to-day, as a cloud of witnesses for 
the divine Gospel which has here been proclaimed and Jesus Christ the 
corner-stone on which this church was built. Seven churches of our own 
denomination have, in whole or in part, sprung from this ancient stock. 
And how much of the life of the score of churches of various denomina- 
tions, which cover the ground originally occupied by the Claverack Church, 
is derived from the same source, may afford a fit subject of pleasing con- 
jecture. At least two of the honored ministers of our denomination, Rev. 
Dr. Currie, recently deceased, and the lamented Westfall, have gone forth 
to preach the Gospel. What a commentary on the conservative influence 
of the church it is to see before me to-day a congregation composed chiefly 
of the children of those same honored and pious men who built this house 
and received their spiritual nurture within its courts. Surely the seed of 
the righteous is blessed ; and there is no such security for the stability, 
righteousness, and real prosperity of any community as the planting and 
fostering of a Christian evangelical church. Let it be your glad and 
grateful task, then, to cherish this church of your fathers, that it may 
nourish you and your children, and generations yet unborn, with the life of 
God, conveyed through the word of his mouth and the ordinances of his 
appointment. 

And now, as yonder clock, so appropriately presented by a son of this 
church as his centennial offering, goes on to mark the hours of the future, 
what shall be the history which we shall make for those who may gather 
on this spot when another century has flown ? The time past stands here 
to-day with solemn warnings and urgent counsels. It bids us discriminate 
faithfully between its virtues and its faults. It waves us on to a more 
progressive and fruitful life. The merely conservative work has been done 
and well done. Let us ask ourselves whether the New Era, on whose 
threshold we stand to- day, has not a larger, grander, and more aggressive 
work for the sons of the old Claverack Church. 
3 



jSoCIAL AND pIVIL j^ISTORY 

OF THE 

TOWN OF GLAVEKAOK 

A CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 

BY REV. ELBERT S. PORTEE, D.X3. 



ADDRESS BY REV. DR. PORTER. 



Among modern improvements may be ranked the signal advance which 
of late has been made in the art of writing history. The religion of Christ, 
touching humanity, as it does, at every point, taking account of all its inter- 
ests, and diffusing its benign benefits among the many, has gradually trans- 
ferred the sceptre of authority from the few to the people. The beneficent 
changes thus wrought by the grand and ever-progressive revolution in the 
domestic, social, civil, and religious condition of the race have so enlarged 
the scope and style of written history, that it is no longer devoted ex- 
clusively to the commemoration of regal crimes, but aims instead to de- 
scribe the processes by which nations have been rendered happy through 
the prevalence of virtuous industry and popular intelligence. 

As the beds of great rivers are filled by the contributions of thousands 
of lesser streams, so the history of a nation is the product of the local his- 
tories of the communities which compose it. Since this is so, every or- 
ganized community is in duty bound to gather up its traditional treasures, 
freshen the inscriptions on its memorial stones, and preserve those worth) r 
records which hold the names around which cluster the immortal deeds of 
saintly faith or of heroic patriotism. For as trees draw nourishment from 
their roots, so every community invigorates itself by the filial act of reviv- 
ing its past, that it may contribute whatever it had of the best and the noblest 
to the growth of the present and the maturing fruitage that is to gladden 
the future. To this good and comely task we are this day giving our 
thoughts and the affectionate earnestness of our grateful hearts. 

"We are gathered to a memorial festival, the like of which our fathers 
saw not, and which our children shall not see. To us is given the high 
and rare privilege to hear the mystic clock of time strike the close of an 
historic century. All who were here one hundred years ago sleep, and 
some, hard by this sanctuary which they built. Between them and us, 
two or inree generations have come and gone. Within these courts, con- 
gregation after congregation has been gathered, only to pass in turn to the 
larger congregation that crowds the city of the dead. A few more rolling 
years, and we, too, shall lie down where the dust of patriarchal sires now 
rests, and they who come after us will, perhaps, recite our names in ac- 
cents as tender with filial reverence as we shall recite to-day the names 
we can not let fall into the dark and turbid stream of forgotten things. 

The love we bear our kindred, and the attachment we have for places 



38 



around which are entwined some of the fondest associations of our lives, 
combine to excite and sanctify our interest in an occasion so rare and so 
impressive as this. And because our sensibilities are to be gratified by the 
services which long memories are this day to render, I shall trust your 
good will and patience to aid me as I now undertake to review with rapid 
words some of the chief events and conspicuous features of your local 
history. 

Already we have listened with attentive ears and thankful hearts to the 
record of the divine work begun here a century and a half ago, and con- 
tinued with uninterrupted faithfulness and with ever-augmenting measures 
of blessing, even until this day. You remember how it is written of the pious 
Israelites that, when they had taken down their harps from the rivers of 
Babylon and returned to their Holy City, and under Nehemiah rebuilt 
and beautified their temple, Ezra opened the book of the Lord, " and 
when he opened it, all the people stood up : and Ezra blessed the Lord, 
the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up 
their hands : and they bowed their heads, and worshiped the Lord with 
their faces to the ground." 

There are with us this day not a few whose memories go back to the 
century preceding this. Their years are lirtks in the chain which unites 
long vanished generations with the present. They still live to testify con- 
cerning the changes which have swept over this communit}* ; and for our 
eyes they are, indeed, venerable and sacred memorials, from whose whiten- 
ed locks there descends a hallowed light wherein we may read the precious 
promise, " Even to hoar hairs will I carry you." Standing before these aged 
men and women, we pause and almost wait with reverential silence as we 
seem to hear them say to the God of all their years : " Cast us not off in 
the time of old age ; forsake us not when our strength faileth." " Because 
thou hast been our help, therefore beneath the shadow of thy wings 
will we continue to trust." 

We give them welcome and honor, and strive to share their thoughts 
and to participate in their feelings of gladness as they look around them 
this day, and behold their long-cherished sanctuary beautiful in its age, 
crowded with a generation intent upon commemorating that divine good- 
ness to which a century is now setting its seal. Well may they exclaim 
as they look down from the height of their many years, "Instead of the 
fathers hate come up the children." 

From these introductory observations, I now pass to sketch in outline 
the social and civil history of this town. As nothing of the kind has 
been attempted hitherto, I have been constrained to gather my materials 
from many sources ; some from books, some from old family manuscripts, 
and many from the memories of different persons still living among you. 
2\othing more than a sketch will be offered. Yet if this should serve in 
any wise to gratify the feelings and animate the hopes of those who are 
now charged with the sacred duty of promoting the welfare of this com- 



39 



munity, I shall be thankful to have been honored with the privilege of 
having brought my humble offering before you. 

The Reformation of the sixteenth century produced the republic of the 
Netherlands. Its seven provinces united their strength against Charles the 
Fifth and Philip the Second, his son. After a war of unexampled forti- 
tude, courage, and heroism — a war which lasted through a period of eighty 
years — the Batavian republicans had beaten all their pipal enemies on 
land and on sea, and established a government, the like of which for wisdom 
and liberality the European world had never before seen. It is but simple 
truth to claim that, when our own government was to be framed, its fram- 
ers had no better model in all the past to consult than the one furnished 
them by the seven provinces of the Netherlands. Civil and religious liberty 
of which we boast, the Netherlander had secured in a good degree for 
themselves ; and not only for themselves, but also for Huguenot, Puritan, 
Walloon, and Bohemian, by their unexcelled bravery in an age when civil 
and ecclesiastical despotism had turned nearly the whole world besides 
into either a prison-house or a field of carnage. 

The most critical investigations have established the fact that the abo- 
riginal inhabitants of the Low Countries were never brought under the yoke 
of a military conqueror. Cassar overran Gaul and portions of Germany, 
but the Batavii and the Belgi, having delivered battle in the field, retreated 
into their native forests or morasses, and there defied the advance of the 
Roman eagles. 

A hardier, tougher, or more independent race has not been found among 
all the tribes of Japheth than were the rude people who, at the beginning 
of the Christian era, were contending with the waves and tides of the North 
Sea, as their descendants fifteen hundred years afterward were found fight- 
ing with dauntless courage against the perfidy of Rome and the cruelty of 
Philip. 

In the history of the civilized world, there is not a single parallel to the 
marvelous energy and uncompromising vigor of purpose which from gen- 
eration to generation characterized the inhabitants of the Low Countries. 
Having first wrested their territory from the sea, and then their freedom 
from the mouth of a Papal hell, ever open to devour it and them, the Ba- 
tavian republicans, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, pre- 
sented the spectacle of a free state, to which the eyes of the oppressed in 
all neighboring nations were turned. 

Holland [Hollow Land], the chief province of the Republican Confeder- 
ation, had the principal seaports, the largest cities, and the political capi- 
tal, and thus gave its name to the people, language, and state. In the 
zenith of its power it ruled the seas by its marine, and controlled the 
commerce of the world through the enterprise of its merchants ; while, by 
the valor of its military chieftains and the wisdom of its statesmen, it held 
in check the ambition of Austria, Spain, France, and England. 

Good and great principles, like light, shine for all. For this reason 
the liberty of Holland diffused itself among the people of despotic coun- 



40 



tries, and thus, though the Batavian Republic has long since lost its splen- 
dor, still its influence is felt to-day wherever the Saxon tongue pours forth 
its passionate eloquence in praise of nations that have heroically and suc- 
cessfully struggled for the sacred cause of human rights. 

In the year 1664 the New-Netherlands, which had been occupied about 
forty years by the Hollanders, was ceded to the British crown, and Peter 
Stuyvesant retired from the Governorship of the Province. 

But though the sceptre of civil authorit}*- was transferred, still there 
remained at that time in possession of the Hollanders in the Old World, 
all those elements of power which contribute most effectually to the deve- 
lopment of individual enterprise, social prosperity, and national greatness. 
While England was strong enough to grasp and hold the New-Netherlands, 
still she was too weak at home to be able, without the help of Holland, to 
secure or regulate the liberties of her own people. 

Having been for nearly a century a sanctuary of refuge for the exiles 
from all lands, it was reserved for Holland at length to place upon the 
British throne a prince whose wisdom in council and whose valor in the 
field all Europe had learned to admire. 

While engaged in commenting, with his usual power of description, 
upon the revolution of. 1688 in England, the historian Macaulay awards to 
the great stadtholder of Holland a place among the chief benefactors of his 
nation. These are his words: u For the authority of law, for the security 
of property, for the peace cf our streets, for the happiness of our homes, 
our gratitude is due, under Him who raises and pulls down nations at his 
pleasure, to the Long Parliament, to the Convention, and to William of 
Orange." 

You may possibly ask, What bearing these remote events have upon 
your local history ? I answer, Very much every way, as the sequel will 
show. 

Three principal colonies were early planted on these shores, of strangely 
variant if not antagonistic peculiarities. The first was that of Jamestown, 
Virginia, composed in the main of English cavaliers, fond of hereditary 
rank, domineering in temper, and courteous toward religion so long as it 
did not interfere with their pleasures or their vices. 

The Puritan colony at Boston was of a different stamp. It consisted 
of men who had suffered for conscience' sake — who had waged a fierce 
battle with Popery and prescription, and had come to America to find a 
place where they might enjoy, unmolested, their own religious opinions 
and ways. Continued persecutions had rendered them sharp, controver- 
sial, and obstinate in their convictions. They were honest but intolerant. 
Yet their intolerance, though it may stain their historic renown, can not de- 
prive them of their right to be regarded as conscientious men, who, per- 
haps, with severe and narrow tempers, injured their own peace of mind by 
their constitutional contempt of all who failed to share their views and 
purposes. 

Had the interests of either civil or religious liberty in this country been 



41 



left to the keeping and control of a New-England secular hierarchy, Ameri- 
can institutions would never have been what they now are. ' It would add 
no lustre to this occasion were an unworthy attempt to be made to rob 
New-England of a single gem in its crown of honor. Yet, looking back- 
ward, as we are now doing, to contemplate the deeds and character of }'our 
ancestors, it is entirely fit to say that very important portions of the early 
history of this country have been miswritten and misrepresented. The 
Puritans were honest, religious zealots, but they had no notions of liberty, 
either for church or state, that could fit them to be the pioneers and found- 
ers of a great and prosperous nation. 

While it is conceded that Holland asserted her benign ascendency in 
securing freedom and prosperity to England, it must also be claimed, what 
impartial truth will sooner or later grant, that the early founders of the 
Empire State, from the beginning, held and exercised those very principles 
which were afterward incorporated into our laws and institutions. 

In his discourse before the New-York Historical Society, Chancellor 
Kent bore this testimony : 

" The Dutch discoverers of New-Netherland were grave, temperate, 
firm, persevering men, who brought with them the industry, the economy, 
the simplicity, the integrity, and the bravery of their Belgic sires, and with 
those virtues they also imported the lights of the Roman civil law and the 
purity of the Protestant faith. To that period we are to look, with chastened 
awe and respect, for the beginnings of our city and the works of our primi- 
tive fathers; our ATbani patres, atque altca Romce." 

Philosophical historians and large-minded statesmen have expressed 
their admiration of that good Providence which chose for the founders of 
the Empire State men who, in their native country, had been partakers of 
the fruits of regulated liberty, patient labor, and unwearied enterprise. 
Having seen with their own eyes the operation of a comparatively free 
and tolerant government in the Old World, they naturally desired to pos- 
sess and to exercise the same rights here to which they had been accus- 
tomed from their childhood. Hence, it came to pass that New-York and 
Albany, from their foundation until this hour, have exerted a wholesome, 
formative influence both upon the whole structure of our social life and 
upon the spirit of our legislation. 

When Puritans were persecuting those who, like themselves, had fled 
from persecution, the Hollanders were showing mercy and doing kindness 
to Jesuits and other time-long enemies. Zealous as they were for their 
own faith, yet they scorned the bigot's narrow and clouded path. While 
they insisted upon their own rights, they were at the same time generous 
in their consideration of the rights of others. 

In 1630, Killian Van Rensselaer, a merchant of xlmsterdam, purchased 
of the Red men a tract of land around Fort Orange, or Albany, which was 
forty-eight miles long by twenty-four miles in breadth. This tract in- 
cluded what are now known as Albany and Rensselaer, together with large 



42 



portions of Greene, Montgomery, Schenectady, Saratoga, Schoharie, and 
Columbia counties. 

As the history of your county is therefore identified with that of 
Albany during a period of a hundred and fifty-six years, I mast briefly 
narrate a few events which bear upon the general course of my narrative. 

Hendrick Hudson sailed up the North River as far as where Albany 
now is in the year 1609. Adventurers came over from Holland in 1614, 
and built a fort on what is yet called Castle Island, and whence the village 
of Castleton derives its name. In 1617, another fort was erected at the 
mouth of Norman's Kill, and, in 1623, Fort Orange was built on the spot 
now used for the principal steamboat landing at Albany. An agricultural 
colony was planted in that year, from which time may be dated the perma- 
nent settlement of the region about Albany. In that year, the first white 
woman ventured there. Her name was Cateline Trico. A shipload of 
colonists arrived in 1630, and others followed in succeeding years. It is 
impossible to determine with accuracy what provision was made for reli- 
gious instruction among the people at and around Fort Orange prior to the 
year 1642. Dr. Livingston, in one of his manuscripts, says: 44 In Albany 
they had ministers as early as any in New- York, if not before them." It is 
certain, however, that the Reformed Church there stood in the relation of 
a parent to all of the same faith which were organized at an early day in 
the then district of Rensselaerwyck. This district was redivided, after the 
lapse of many years, into smaller districts, such as we now style towns. 
Kinderhook and Claverack were the original districts of all that part of 
what is now included in Columbia county, north of the Livingston Manor. 
Both were erected into districts in the month of March, 1772. Kinderhook 
has priority of age by just two days. 

Dutchess county originally belonged to the Ulster district, and included 
the manor lands of Robert Livingston. Concerning that Manor I shall 
quote a few curious items from the Documentary History of the State, since 
they too form a portion of the annals of this county and of this congrega- 
tion : 

The Livingston Patent contained two purchases. The largest was the 
Roeliff Jansen's Kill tract, which started at Oak Hill on the north, faced 
the river to the southern limit of Germantown, a distance of twelve miles, 
and then extended back with equal width to the Taghkanic Hills. As you 
may like to know how much was paid for all that now fertile region, I will 
enumerate precisely what was given for it by Robert Livingston : " Three 
hundred guilders, eight blankets and two child's blankets, five and twenty 
ells of duffels and four garments of strouds, ten large shirts and ten small 
ditto, ten pairs of large stockings, ten of small ditto, six guns, fifty pounds 
of powder, fifty sticks of lead, four caps, ten kettles, ten axes, ten adzes, 
two pounds of paint, twenty little scissors, twenty looking glasses, one 
hundred fish hooks, awls and nails one hundred, four rolls of tobacco, 
one hundred pipes, ten bottles, three kegs of rum, one barrel of strong 
beer and twenty knives, four stroud coats, two duffel coats, and four tin 



43 

kettles." Moderate as this payment was, it appears to have given entire 
satisfaction to all the Indians concerned in the sale except one. It is on 
record that four years afterward a certain Cripplebush woman of Catskill, 
urged some unsatisfied claim, whereupon arrangements were made to buy 
off Siakanochiqui with "one cloth garment and .one cotton shift, for her 
share in a certain flatt of land scituate in the manor of Livingston." Thus 
ended the first lawsuit originating about the manor. It was not the last. 
The Taghkanic Patent was at length included with that of the first pur- 
chase, in the year 1686, under one general grant, by Thomas Dongan, Gover- 
nor of the province. 

Three years after the close of the Revolutionary War, on the 4th of 
April, 1786, the county of Columbia was formed. It took a portion of 
Albany county, and the Livingston Manor from Dutchess county. You 
will thus notice that the organization of Claverack preceded that of the 
county by the. space of fourteen years. This venerable edifice antedates by 
five years the formation of the Claverack district, and, as we have already 
heard, the organization of the church itself carries us back to the very be- 
ginnings of social Christian life in this region. 

As the stone was set up in Mizpeh for a memorial, so does this house 
of God stand this day as a history in itself of the community over whose 
earlier as well as later years it has stood watch and guard. 

Let us now transport our thoughts backward, and travel with the cen- 
tury as it rolls onward to this present. We must set up stakes to mark 
the place of beginning, so that we may clearly see how fast and how far the 
world has moved hereabout within the period of a hundred years. 

A little more than a century ago, Indian tribes still roamed at will 
through the primeval forests which covered the larger portion of this State. 
In 1754, the white inhabitants of the colonies were alarmed by the prospect 
of a threatened French and Indian war. To prepare for its expected com- 
ing the first American Congress ever convened met in the city of Albany, 
on the 19th of June, 1754. That was the first effort which the infant 
colonies made to act in concert for the common welfare. Seven colonies 
were represented in that Congress. 

Eleven years later, in 1765, the people of the several colonies were 
becoming much excited over the British Stamp Act, and Cadwallader Col- 
den, then Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of New-York, wrote a letter 
to the British ministers, in which he stated that the "mob" threatened 
resistance. In that letter he inclosed a copy of a handbill which was being, 
circulated, and which read as follows : 

PRO PATRIA. 

" The first man that either distributes or makes use of stampt paper, let 
him take care of his -house, person & effects." Vox Populi." 



"WE DARE." 



44 

Thus it is seen that, when the walls of this sanctuary were about to be 
reared, the people of these colonies were preparing in earnest to lay the 
foundations of this free and independent nation. 

There were, in 1766, local disturbances of a serious nature in which the 
population of this region were deeply interested. But of these I shall 
speak hereafter. We shall now give our attention to home matters. In 
the year 1704, Killian Van Rensselaer of Albany, conveyed to his brother 
Hendrick a large tract of land, which by the Indians was called Pot Tcolce, 
and which in the Dutch language was described and known as Claverack. 
John Yan Rensselaer, son of Hendrick, erected this district into the Lower 
Manor to distinguish it from that on the north. lie was born in 1711 and 
died in 1783. The deed for the land on which this Church stands came 
from him. His son John occupied the manor-house, a mile east of the 
village, on the site now occupied by the mansion of Mr. Jacob Esslestyne. 
Yan Rensselaer claimed 170,000 acres. This claim was, however, main- 
tained with great difficulty. Squatters from Massachusetts took possession 
of portions of this tract, and were expelled by force of arms. In 1766, a 
general disturbance arose among the tenants on the Livingston manor in 
the eastern part of Claverack and in Albany county. It was during the 
anti-rent troubles of that year that Cornelius Hogeboom, grandfather of 
the Hon. Henry Hogeboom and Cornelius Van Dusen, both civil officers, 
were shot while in the discharge of their public duties.* Some account of 
these agitations is contained in the Documentary History of the State which 
is too full for me to quote here. 

The portion of the ancient territory of Claverack at present included in 
the town, was originally settled by Hollanders and by Germans from the 
Palatinate. At the beginning of the last century the population scattered 
through this region was exceedingly sparse. There is, however, every rea- 
son to think that this village was the first place occupied in this section of 
the county. At that time there were but four houses in all in the Living- 
ston Manor. A census of Claverack which then included Greenport, Stock- 
port, a part of Ghent and Hillsdale, showed the number of inhabitants to 
be only 216, and of that number 19 were slaves. 

It is of course impossible for me to trace with perfect accuracy, or with 
exact minuteness of detail all the family links which connect the first 
settlers in these parts with their present descendants now living and 
resident here. Yet I have obtained some particulars of an exceedingly in- 
teresting character, and which belong to the social history of our time. It 
is evident that the Esselstynes, the Hogebooms, the Millers, the Van 
Dusens, the Ten Broecks, the Van Rensselaers, and the Konyns were among 
the very first who occupied and cultivated the farm lands in this immer 
diate vicinity. There are some names familiar to us which are found in 
the records of immigration to New-Netherlands before its cession to the 
British. I find among those records the names of Jannetje Teunis Van 



* They were shot about one half mile east of what was formerly known as the Krum church. 



Yssclstyne, Garret Cornelius Van Newkirk, wife, and sucking child, and 
Gllis Mandeville, in 1659. Garret Aartsen Van Buren and Garret Cornelis- 
sen Van Buren, in 1G60. Petrus Marcellus Van Best, and four other 
families of the Van Bests, in "1 061, and Dirck Storm, wife and three children, 
Fernandus De Muldor, and Hans Melius, in 166-4. These are the only- 
names of that early emigration which I have been able to identify with 
the names now common among us. 

There is, however, the roll of a military company, organized and under 
review at Oak Hill in 1715, in which I find the following names: Johannes 
Dyckman, Capt. ; Tobias Ten Broeck, Lieut. ; Johannes Spor, Ensign ; 
Abraham Vosburgh, William White, William Scot, sergeants ; John 
Decker, Ephraim Race, Hendrick Bross, corporals. Privates : "William 
Winne, Leendert Konyn, Jonathan Race, Johannes Pulver, Tunis Decker, 
Coenraet Ham, Coenraet Schuereman, John Emenils Ploss, John Coenraed 
Petri, Lawrence Knickerbocker, Jacob Stever, Johannes Rosman, Jacob 
Coens, Nicus Janse Whitbeck, John Whitbeck, Gu} T sbert Oosterhout, 
Andrew Gardner, John Leggat, Jury Ruverberger, Baltus Stiever, Jans 
Williamschoen, Diderigh Snyder, Tenis Snyder, and Harmanus Sagen- 
dorph. 

At that time all these persons were residents of Livingston's Manor. 
But the larger advantages offered by the proprietor of Claverack, induced 
many of them no doubt to remove at an early day within its boundaries.* 

By the aid of certain family manuscripts, and the verbal information 
derived from their descendants, I have been able to obtain some authentic 
facts respecting a few of the earliest families connected with the social 
foundations of your town. 

Martin Esslestyne arrived in America in the year 1660. He had two 
sons, Jacob and Cornelius. The latter married Cornelia Vredenburg of 
Kingston. They had seven sons, among whom were Jacob and Gabriel, 
who removed to Claverack in 1710. 

Jacob married Magdelen Brodhead, of Ulster. They had five daughters 
and two sons, Richard and Cornelius. Among the children of Cornelius 
was Richard, born 1731, and died in 1783, the year in which peace with 
England was declared. Richard was a patriot and a soldier. He held 
the rank of major in a regiment of militia raised in Claverack to resist the 
northern encroachments of the British troops. From a full return of this 
regiment, drawn up in the year 1772, I copy in full the names of its of- 
ficers. They are the names of patriots who offered their lives for the lib- 
erties we enjoy. It is no small satisfaction we shall feel in throwing back 
from this distance the tribute of our praise to their honored memories. 
Here is the roll. It is in the handwriting of Colonel Hogeboom — Jere- 
miah Hogeboom, Colonel ; Johannes Van Hoeson, Lieutenant-Colonel, 
There were ten companies, whose officers were as follows : 



* Life leases were given on the Livingston, and perpetual leases on the Lower Piensselaer 
Manor. 



46 



Hendrick Van Hoesen, Francis Herdick (Harder?), Samuel Ten Broeck. 
Thomas Storm, Peter Loup, Isaac N. Vosburgh, Isaac Spoore. 
William Van Alstyne, John Orphan, Jeremiah Muller. 
James Spencer, Roger Kinney, Jonathan Dean, Stephen Graves. 
Stephen Hogeboom, Cors. S. Muller, Joachim Muller, Peter Hogeboom, 
John MeKinstry, Samuel Cole, James Bagly, Joshua Whitney. 
Casparus Conyne, Robert Van Dusen, Thomas Pechtel, James Hoge- 
boom. 

Johannes Plass, Dirk Delemater, William Hollenbeck, Jacob Carter. 

Richard Esslestyne — who acted as Major — David Bonesteel, William 
Phillip, Richard Horton, Jeremiah C. Miller, William Van Ness, Jr., Hen- 
drick Muller. 

The above are names which deserve to be, and doubtless are, held in 
honor. They belong to the immortal roll of patriots, whose devotion to 
their country, to liberty, and to the rights of man, can not be too highly 
eulogized, since it is to them we owe the possession of our free institutions. 
In the history of the town of Claverack, the names just recited should be 
cherished in most affectionate remembrance. They are among its chief 
memorials. The descendants of these worthy soldiers and patriots may 
well be glad to trace a pedigree which connects them with the choicest 
spirits that were once known to brighten here the dark days when war 
arose like a tempest, and threatened destruction to all man can hold as 
precious bej^ond life itself. 

Richard Esslestyne had two sons, named Jacob, born in 1762, and Cor- 
nelius, born 1765. They were the more immediate ancestors of the two 
branches of the family now residing in this town; From Jacob, have de- 
scended Tobias, who occupies the very soil which has been transmitted 
down to the sixth generation in the same family, — Jacob, a resident of 
Wisconsin, and John Esslestyne, of Mellenville. 

From Cornelius have descended Richard, Jacob, (who now occupies the 
place of the former patroon,) Charles, a distinguished member of }^our coun- 
ty bar, Isaac, William, Robert, and Martin Esslestyne, all well known 
among you as citizens worthy of their ancestry. 

The Miller family, so numerous in its various branches, trace their 
origin to a common ancestor, Cornelius Stevense Muldor, who obtained 
from Hendrick Van Rensselaer a continuous lease for about one thousand 
acres of land. His residence was near the spot now occupied by one of his 
descendants, Mr. John Miller. It may not be safe to undertake to reverse 
an established opinion on a matter so delicate as that of family descent ; but 
it seems to be capable of proof that the original name of MillerwasDe Muldor, 
and if so, then it is clearly a Huguenot and not a German designation. Ob- 
serving, as I often have, the French features of some of the Millers, it 
raised a question in my mind whether they were or were not the offspring 
of those brave defenders of their faith, who, after the revocation of the 
Edict of Nantz, gave up their country rather than bow to the detestable 
tyranny of Rome. Be this as it may, I shall briefly state that portions of 



47 



the land originally occupied by Cornelius Stevense Muldor are yet in the 
possession of several of his direct descendants. He had four sons, of 
whom Stephanus and Christopple were two. Christopple was father of 
Killian, and he of Joachim Miller, who was an officer in the regiment al- 
ready named. He was father of John S. and Killian Miller, and John S. 
was father of John, who married Miss Staats, a descendant of one of the old 
Albany families of that name, and who resided with us. 

Stephanus, son of Cornelius, the founder of the family, received a deed 
from his father, in 1723, for the farm on which Mr. Harmon Miller now re- 
sides, but which, at that time, extended on the other side of the creek 
southward. This Stephanus, in 1726, was one of the committee to erect the 
first house of worship in this place. He had a son, Cornelius Stevense, who, 
also, in turn had a son named Cornelius C. S. Miller. This last-named Cor- 
nelius had two sons and two daughters. The names of the sons were 
Stephen and Cornelius ; of the daughters, Rachel and Cornelia. Miss 
Maria Miller still resides on land owned by the first Stephanus, and Stephen 
Miller Van Wyck also owns land which has descended in the family in un- 
broken succession. Among the descendants of this branch are Hon. Judge 
Theodore Miller, Hon. John Gaul, Jr., Jacob W. Miller, and the late Henry 
C. Miller, of Hudson. 

The first Killian Miller had two sons, Joachim and Cornelius. This 
Conelius was father of Jeremiah Miller, grandfather of Jeremiah M. Race, 
who occupies a portion of the original estates, and of Jeremiah Miller Wil- 
liams, who married a granddaughter of Dr. John Gebhard. They occupy 
the farm owned by John Ba}% a lawyer, and who afterward built, about 
eighty years ago, the house now occupied by Miss Catherine Phillips. 

The Van Dusen family is among the oldest, tracing back its beginnings 
to an ancestor who built the brick house near the creek, on the south 
shoulder of Beighraft's Mountain. Robert, who served in the regiment 
named, was father of Mr. Tobias R. Van Dusen, long an esteemed and 
worthy officer in this church, as his father was before him. 

The Van Rensselaers all sprang from the Albany stock. John, the 
proprietor of Claverack, had a son, John I. Van Rensselaer, who was father 
of Jacob Rutzen Van Rensselaer, a distinguished man in the public affairs 
of his day. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1821. 
The manorial claims were sold by John I. Van Rensselaer to a Mr. Penfield, 
who in turn sold to Mr. John Watts, long time a resident here, who was 
grandfather of J. Watts De Puyster, of Poughkeepsie. He obtained a de- 
cision in his favor from the Supreme Court of the United States, giving 
him the title as heir to the remaining manorial claims. That decision was 
rendered about sixteen years ago, since when the entire soil of the "Lower 
Manor" has been held in fee simple by its occupants. 

On the old road to Johnstown stands the spacious mansion of Mr. Alex- 
ander S. Van Rensselaer. That was built with brick one hundred and one 
years ago, by Kasparus Konyn, a Revolutionary patriot, and who was an 



48 



ancestor, on their maternal side, of Mr. Alexander S. Van Rensselaer and 
Mr. John II. Dickie. 

From the earliest times of your local history the Hogebooms have oc- 
cupied a conspicuous place in the affairs of your town and county. Some 
of them have been constantly in public life. Col. Jeremiah Hogeboom, 
already named, proved his patriotism in many ways. He was grandfather 
of Col. James Watson Webb, who was born in the old brick house, now oc- 
cupied by Mr. Adams. His son, Stephen, was a member of the Constitu- 
tional Convention in 1801, of which Aaron Burr was president. It may 
have been about that time when Aaron Burr stopped, on his way to Al- 
bany, at a hotel kept in the old farm-house now owned by Robert Essie- 
sty ne. The Dutch language was then the common speech in use in these 
parts. W'hile Burr was dining, he called for a napkin. The good hostess 
did not understand him, so she called her husband, and they had an ear- 
nest conversation over the puzzling problem. At length they discovered 
that he wanted a kniptong, and so they brought him a pair of pincers in- 
stead of a napkin. The mistake was Burr's fault. He should have under- 
stood Dutch. Had he been brought up to that tongue, he would not have 
been a traitor, for no true Dutchman has ever yet been found to be the 
enemy of his country. Among the Hogebooms I should mention the name 
of Judge John C. Hogeboom, a descendant of Abraham Hogeboom, and 
father of Henry Hogeboom, at present one of the Justices of the Supreme 
Court. Both in religious and civil affairs he rendered good and memorable 
service. He was two years in succession a member of Assembty, and 
also a member of the Council of Appointment. In his political history of 
the State, Hammond makes the following mention of him : 

"I can not write the name of John C. Hogeboom without recording my 
testimony to the goodness of his heart, and the energ}* and vigor of his in- 
tellectual powers. He was a native of Columbia count}^ where he died. 
His education had been limited, but he was one of nature's great men, pos- 
sessing a sound judgment and clear and discriminating mental faculties. 
Ardent and indefatigable in advancing the interests and wishes of his 
friends, he was courteous and liberal toward his political opponents. He 
lived esteemed and respected, and died bitterly lamented by all, and espe- 
cially by those who had the happiness of knowing him." 

The Ten Broeck family is very ancient. Rachel, a daughter of Hen- 
drick Van Rensselaer, married Samuel Ten Broeck, one of the committee 
in the erection of the first church, in 1726. He had a son, Jeremiah, who 
also had a son, Samuel J., who was father of Adam Ten Broeck, who served 
during a period of seven years in the Revolutionaiy War. His widow re- 
sides in this village. She is now in the eighty-eighth year of her age, and 
converses with fluency respecting affairs of former days. She is honored 
in the affections of her relatives, and is highly esteemed as a mother in 
Israel. She is a member of this church. 

The ancestor of the Phillips family came from Holland, and settled first 
in Germantown. He had six sons, among whom were George, William, 



49 



Henry, and David, who removed to Claverack and became identified with 
its history. The other two sons remained in Germantown. 

George married Jane Ostrander. They were the first couple united in 
marriage by Rev. Dr. Gebhard, after his arrival here. George held the 
commission of a captain during the Revolutionary "War, and acted as com- 
missary of subsistence. 

The Phillips family became also connected with the Hortons. Michael 
Horton came from England, settled here, and married Elizabeth, daughter 
of Jacob Esselstyne. Michael was a commissioned officer in the American 
army, and was present at the surrender of Burgoyne. His son Joseph 
married the eldest daughter of George Phillips, and was grandfather of Rev. 
Francis Horton, of Catskill. 

Two other well-beloved ministers of the Gospel trace their lineage to 
and are worthy sons of this town — Rev. Richard Whitbeck and Rev. Martin 
L. Burger, who may read, with filial interest, all that herein appears re- 
specting the Miller family, to which they belong. 

Among the descendants of Captain George Phillips were John, Peter, 
and James — the latter the beloved physician whose skillful and valuable 
attentions many of you have received, and whose name you therefore 
honor and love. 

I have not enough information to warrant an attempt to trace this 
family through its various branches. It is certain, however, that it has ever 
been distinguished for intelligence, public spirit, piety, and patriotism. 
From some of that family this town and church have received most impor- 
tant service, as the records of each abundantly prove. 

The Rossmans have for generations been an active and influential family. 
They have been for the most part farmers ; but many of that name have 
also occupied conspicuous positions in the state and the church, and have 
adorned some of the liberal professions by their eminent science and in- 
dustry. 

Among the older families of this section were the Van Nesses, Jordans, 
the Schoemakers, intermarried with the Vanderpoels, Mesicks,* Storms, and 
Sagendorphs ; but it is now impossible to go to into a special enumeration 
of their several branches. The Mesicks and Sagendorphs are occupying' 
land which has descended to the third and fourth generation. 

Thus we have seen on what a good, honest, Dutch foundation the social 
structure of this town was laid. I do not believe the fathers were any 
better than their children. But it is an encouragement for children to re- 
member the sterling and Christian and patriotic virtues of their fathers^ 
and to be mindful of the truth that no ancestry, however honorable, can 
varnish or dignify an indolent, vicious, and irreligious life. .Look back and 
inquire whether the experience of this community does not prove that 
integrity, sobriety, industry, and religion confer the highest rewards ? 

In 1772, Claverack was erected into a district. Prior to that time it had 

* Hendrick Mesick bad a commission as lieutenant from Cadwallader Golden, dated 1762. 

4 



50 



been governed by the patroons, who exercised a quasi feudal authority. 
But population had increased, and the interests of society demanded legis- 
lation. At that time Livingston Manor, Claverack, and Kinderhook, each 
sent one delegate to the Provincial Legislature. The county had not yet 
been set off, and the affairs of the district were conducted in a domestic way. 
For several years a committee of safety met in the house now owned and 
occupied by Mr. Jeremiah M. Race. During the Revolution its cellar was 
used as a jail for the imprisonment of tories ; how many were brought out 
from it to be hung or shot I do not know. It is, however, very certain 
that far better things than tories are in the habit of coming out of that 
cellar now. 

Among ante-Revolutionary matters deserving mention I must not omit 
to say there are standing among us a few relics of the olden time. The 
most aged is the Van Hoesen house, built in 1729, now owned by Mr. 
Ludlow. Next is the Ten Broeck house, of brick, north of Mr. Browneli's 
farm. The third is the residence of my friend Mr. Jeremiah M. Race, 
which is now one hundred years old. I should gladly wish, if my self- 
ishness could be consulted, that its present occupants might remain in 
it until the next centennial celebration. But neither we nor our friends 
can live here forever, nor should we wish to live beyond the time when 
our work has been finished. Happy shall we be if we live well. 

A few years prior to the war of the Revolution — at a time, however, 
when it was imminent — several families removed from New-York to Clave- 
rack. Among these was William Henry Ludlow, who built and resided 
first in the house now occupied by Mr. Martin Miller. He opened a grain 
store in the old stone house once owned by Gabriel Esslestyiie. That 
business, soon after the Revolution, became very extensive, so much so 
indeed that Claverack was the chief market town for this portion of the 
manor. Mr. Ludlow built the large mansion where his descendants now 
reside about eighty years ago. 

Mrs. Ludlow,* widow of the late William B. Ludlow, is herself a most in- 
teresting bond of connection between Revolutionary times and the present. 
Her father, Robert, was himself greatly distinguished, and was brother of 
Gouverneur Morris, one of the chief makers of our national Consiitution. 
Robert H. Morris, brother of Mrs. Ludlow, was known to many of you as 
an able lawyer, a sterling patriot, and an incorruptible judge. 

The county of Columbia was set off from Albany and organized April 
4th, 1786, and Claverack was the county-seat until 1805, when it was re- 
moved to Hudson. The courthouse was built at an expense of £3600. It 
is now the elegant and hospitable mansion of Peter Hoffman, Esq. 

Although it was not completed until 1788, yet around that Claverack 
courthouse linger some of the choicest memories. There Eiisha Williams 

* The author is indebted to Mr. Stephen B. Miller and Judge Henry Uogeboom, of Hudson, 
Mrs Julia Ludlow, John Miller, Tobias Esselstyne, Miss Maria Miller, John H. Dickie, Frederick 
Mesick, Jeremiah M. Race, and others, of Claverack, and to Dr. Lewis G. Gebhard of Philadel- 
phia, for valuable aid while collecting materials for his discourse. 



51 



and James Spencer, Francis Sylvester, the Vanderpoels, William W. Van 
Ness, and other advocates of great ability, engaged in the legal conflicts of 
their day. It is said that in the last trial conducted in that courthouse, 
Alexander Hamilton appeared in a case between the patroon and his 
tenants at Nobletown, and displayed all the higher qualities of his stately 
and prodigious intellect, 

Claverack remained the post-office station for Hudson until 1790. In 
1786. Killian Hogeboom was postmaster, and on the thirteenth day of July 
of that year, the Jirst list of letters published in the county appeared. 

On September 26th, 1786, Killian K. Van Rensselaer, the first clerk 
and surrogate of the county, opened his office at the house of Dr. Joseph 
Mullins, then of this village. 

As a curious illustration of the temper of those times, and of the man- 
ner in which gentlemen vindicated their honor, it may be mentioned that 
on April 24th, 1787, Peter B. Ten Brocck advertised Killian K. Van Rens- 
selaer, the surrogate, as "a coward, pusillanimous and destitute of the 
truth." Van Rensselaer replied in the same strain ; but it is not known 
that any thing more precious than ink was shed on the occasion. 

About the same time, or a little earlier, Dirck Van De Kar advertised 
that John Mason and four others, against whom he had a precept for £4, 
intimidated him by threats, so as to obtain a receipt in full for Mason's 
debt, and two notes of £20 each, without consideration ; and therefore the 
said Dirck forewarns all persons not to buy, as he will not pay them. 

These are glimpses which enable us to see that among the men of a 
former generation there were some outcroppings of native depravity. And 
perhaps they may also increase our confidence in the wisdom of the words 
which forbid us to say that the "former times were better than the 
present." 

In 1796, the presidential electors met in Hudson, cast their vote, and 
then came out to Claverack to get their dinner at Gordon's tavern. 

The changes which have taken place here during the current century 
have been so many and so great, that I must content myself in mention- 
ing a few only. Before the application of steam to navigation, in 1807, the 
post-road west of this church was the great thoroughfare between New- 
York and Albany. Travelers abounded, and hotels lined either side of the 
way. Loaded wagons from the East were sometimes seen standing in a 
line of a mile or more in length, waiting to be unloaded. 

But the nineteenth century has been one of incessant revolution here 
as elsewhere. Every thing in form is different now from what it was in 
the days of the primitive settlers. There are those living who saw the 
Clermont, the first steamboat, pass the landing at Hudson. They probably 
did not see what prophecies of future progress she puffed out of her rude 
smoke-stack. But the Clermont was the forerunner of a new dispensa- 
tion in the industrial, social, and commercial world. Facility of communi- 
cation w T ith New-York enhanced the price of land, and enriched those who 
before had been comparatively poor. It did more, it brought into rural 



52 



life something of the intense activity of the town, and popularized know- 
ledge by increasing the means of diffusing it. In 1838, the railroad between 
Hudson, and West- Stockbriclge was opened. This, too, had a perceptible 
effect upon the condition of society here, and enhanced, the opportunities 
for travel, which is, in itself, an active educational power. 

In agricultural skill and consequent wealth, Claverack has now become 
second to but very few towns in the whole State. Yet there are those still 
living who can remember when vast pitfalls were dug within sight of this 
very spot, for the purpose of entrapping wolves. The soil, naturally fertile, 
yielded, it is true, a generous return to the husbandman. But during 
nearly the whole of the first quarter even of this century, farming was 
conducted in a careless and unprofitable way. The all-devouring curse of 
slavery was then here to waste the strength, blight the morals, and corrupt 
the whole framework of society. The whites, indeed, owned the land, but 
the negroes devoured the increase thereof. It was not until slavery was 
abolished in this State that the farmers here, as a class, began to thrive. 
Now, wherever we take our stand, and whatever view we may gain, there 
are outspread before us such scenes of rural enchantment as never fail to 
please and elevate the mind. Your farmers are princes. Masters of the 
implements of husbandry, they have converted their broad acres into gar- 
dens of beauty, and from their pleasant palaces — for such, in truth, the 
majority of farm-houses in this town are — they walk forth in the morning's 
early light to the cheerful labors of the day, free, independent, and enter- 
prising. 

Such are the natural attractions of soil and scenery contained within 
3 r our borders, and common, indeed, to this county, that all who have been 
able to compare them with other portions of the world are most cordial and 
even enthusiastic in their praise. Yet to these attractions there have been 
added those of a rarer value — intelligence, industry, virtue, and religion. 
These are, after all, the chief treasures of every community, and here they 
may be seen combined, not yet in their perfection, but in growing propor- 
tions and increasing power. 

" Scenes must be beautiful which, daily viewed, 
Please daily, and whose novelty survives 
Long knowledge and the scrutiny of years." 

But upon what eye has the variety, beauty, and grandeur of our rural 
scenery here ever failed to throw the charm of some fresh delight ? And 
as, among the population of our town, one is permitted to extend his 
acquaintance, he is more and more inclined to borrow for the expression 
of his feelings the words of Halleck : 

" View them near 

At home, where all their worth and power is placed, 
And there their hospitable fires burn clear ; 

And there the lowest farm-house hearth is graced 



53 



With manly hearts, in piety sincere ; 

Faithful in love, in honor stern and chaste, 
In friendship warm and true, in danger brave, 
Beloved in life and sainted in the grave." 

To the introduction of improved implements of industry and of labor- 
saving machinery must be attributed here, as elsewhere, the immense ad- 
vancement of the farming interest, both as it respects material and moral 
results. The assertion may seem strange, but it is true, that good ploughs, 
hoes, rakes, reapers, mowers, and hay-presses are promoters of personal 
virtue and of public morals. For by so much as intelligence is required 
for the prosecution of any branch of labor, personal self-respect is secured, 
and the depressing weight of servile drudgery is thrown off; and this, in a 
degree, has been the effect of labor-saving machinery upon all who are en- 
gaged in pursuits requiring manual exertion. Thus, farming as an occupa- 
tion has now become a scientific profession, if not one of the liberal arts. They 
who till the soil in old and wasteful ways, and heed not the value of better 
methods, approved by knowledge and experience, need only reflect upon 
their own failures to find incentives for entering upon paths which the wise 
and prudent have long trodden. 

Iron is the great civilizer. It is more useful to the world than silver or 
gold ; and it may be questioned whether it is anywhere more radically use- 
ful than in a plough. Since agriculture lies at the foundation of all social and 
national prosperity, that which imparts the chief element of power to agri- 
culture is worthy of the highest measure of appreciation ; and, beyond all 
controversy, the plough is to be reckoned among the greatest of benefactors. 
Without it, or with it in a rude and imperfect form, the toil of husbandry 
is a miserable conflict with resisting hardships ; but with it, in its perfected 
form, the earth yields her increase with gladness, and the thorns and the 
briars of the original curse are exchanged for the waving harvests of the 
better dispensation. 

It was not until so late a period as 1825 that iron mouldboard ploughs 
came into use in this town, and from that time to this the farmers, in a 
'true sense, have been masters of the soil ; at least, so many of them as 
have learned that, in order to reap well, it is necessary to plough deeply. The 
bosom" of the earth has vast treasures, but they lie beneath and not upon 
its surface. 

The first grass-mower used here was invented by a Mr. Beal, of Spencer- 
town, about thirty years ago. It had a straight scythe, and was, at least, a 
good experiment in the right direction. Fifteen years since, improved 
mowers came into use, to be superseded in turn by the light but strong 
and manageable machines which mingle their sounds over our hill-sides 
and valleys, in the sweet summer time, with the happy laughter of men 
who have found how to convert work into play. 

But I must pass on to speak of the educational institutions of Clave- 
rack. These have been to it an ornament and a defense. Their history- 
furnishes a just reason for indulging in some measure of local pride. 



54 



The first high-school established in this county was here. It was named 
Washington Seminar} 7- ; was begun in 1777, and successfully founded in 
1779, during the progress of the Revolutionary war. Its originator was 
Rev. Dr. Gebhard, who had privately taught " the sons of some of the best 
families," and saw the necessity of providing other and larger facilities for 
conducting instruction in Latin, Greek, and mathematics. Messrs. Dudley 
Baldwin and Abraham Fonda were the first teachers ; the former had 
charge of the classical, the latter of the English departments; while Dr. 
Gebhard acted as superintendent, an office which he filled till the close of 
the seminary. 

In 1780, N. Meigs was appointed principal, and served until he was suc- 
ceeded by Andrew Mayfield Carshore, who had been impressed into the 
service of the British army and came to this country under General Bur- 
goyne, and after his surrender took charge of a school at Kinderhook, and 
gave instruction there in the English branches only. Having quit the 
school just named, he came to Claverack, entered the family of Dr. Geb- 
hard, and there acquired a knowledge of Latin and Greek. He seems to 
have been a man of unusual genius, aptitude, and culture, and, therefore, 
Washington Seminary, of which he took the charge, became famous in 
those days. He continued his connection with it for about twent} r -five 
years, at the end of which the academy at Hudson was built for him, and 
he removed thither. 

While here for nearly a quarter of a centuiy, says Dr. Lewis Gebhard, 
he taught youth from New- York City, Albany, Poughkeepsie, New-Ro- 
chelle, Livingston's Manor, Hudson, and Claverack. At times Washington 
Seminary had more than one hundred pupils. 

Among those who were educated during this period at this seminary 
were General John P. Van Ness, Attorney-at-Law and Member of Con- 
gress ; Hon. William P. Van Ness, Judge of the Southern U. S. District ; 
Hon. Cornelius P. Yan Ness, Governor of Vermont, Minister to Spain, and 
Collector of the Port of New-York ; General Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer, 
Secretary of State for New- York, often a Member of Congress, and al- 
ways the poor man's friend. The above were all natives of this town. 
Martin Van Buren, Robert H. Morris, and many others afterward conspicu- 
ous in public life, were also students here. Here, too, the Monells, Jordans, 
Phillipses, and Millers acquired the beginnings of their education. Clav- 
erack has a just right to the honor which these illustrious names confer 
upon her maternal brow ; and she claims them all to-day, w T hile she bids 
the present generation to emulate and imitate the virtues of the great men 
she has reared. 

Under the operation of a State law, the Washington Seminary was at 
length merged into a common school. The building stood, and still stands 
directly north of the railroad depot. There are some now present who were 
school-boys, and some of them are pleased to recite reminiscences which, 
while they amuse, do not, perhaps, belong to the sober truth of history. 

The decline of the original seminary incited the Rev. Mr. Sluyter to 



55 



take measures for the erection of an academy, which, in all its proportions, 
should meet the wants of this region. After much effort his plans were ac- 
complished. The Claverack Academy was erected and opened in 1830. It 
had a board of eighteen trustees, of whom only the following survive, name- 
ly, Stephen Storm and John G. Gebhard, M.D. The structure was built by 
Colonel Ambrose Root, and the first principal was the Rev. John Mabon, a 
learned man and an able instructor. He had, while here, under his care, 
several pupils who afterward rose to eminence in the various departments 
of life. 

In 1854, the Claverack Academy and Hudson River Institute was 
opened. Addresses on the occasion were 'delivered by Rev. Isaac Ferris, 
D.D., Horace Greeley, and Rev. Elbert S. Porter. Its first president was 
Rev. Ira. C. Boice, and its lessee, from the beginning, Rev. Alonzo Flack, 
who, acting with the trustees, has successfully aimed to render this one of 
the very best institutions of the kind in the State. 

To Mr. Boice is due the honor of having conceived and defined the idea 
of a large institution having collegiate proportions. He found intelligent 
friends and helpers in Mr. Peter Hoffman, Frederick Mesick, and some others, 
through whose exertions the Hudson River Institute was reared. Thus it 
is seen that the chief friends and promoters of education in this town have 
been the successive pastors of this church. Admirable as their record is 
in the ecclesiastical page, their names shine equally bright among those 
who have been benefactors of the general community. Let it not be forgot- 
ten that Gebhard, Sluyter, and Boice have stamped the impress of their 
generous lives upon your entire educational history; and surely the town, 
as such, has no other history of equal value. • 

As a portion — and a most notable portion — of the history of this town, 
it should be mentioned that there are now residing, for the most part, within 
the town and within the bounds of this congregation, a large number of per- 
sons who have lived to be eighty years old and upward. The following- 
are their names with their ages : Helena Coens, 94 ; David Crego, Sen., 93 ; 
• Mathias Emerick, 92 ; Mrs. Helena Emerick, 82 ; Mrs. Hannah Ten Brock, 
87 ; Mrs. Maria Fryenmout, 87 ; James Studley, 90 ; Jacob Whitbeck, 83 ; 
Mrs. Hannah Pincher, 86 ; Mrs. Abraham T. Van Duserf, 81 ; Mrs. Ann 
Myer, 84 ; Mrs. Rachel Milham, 83 ; Ezra Doane, 85 ; Mrs. Doane, 81 ; 
Mrs. Jane Skinkle, 84; Tunis Snyder, 86 ; Cornelius Ostrander, 80 ; 
Stephen Storm, 85; George Stufflebeem, 84; Christina Stickles, 84; Mrs. 
Mary Bennet, 83 ; Mrs. Cornelia Porter, 81 ; John Holsopple, 82 ; Sophia 
Gifford, 84 ; John Wagner, 81 ; Adam Wagner, 87 ; Mary Beneway, 82 ; 
Mrs. Mary Pitcher, 86; Mrs. Elizabeth Ostrander, 81; George Hanne, 84. 

Here are the names of just thirty persons, whose united ages make the 
sum total of 2542 years — an average of very nearly 85 years. The fact of 
the longevity of so large a number might be supplemented by mentioning 
the names of another large number of your townspeople who have reached 
the age of seventy-five years and upward, and of some who are now ir 
their eightieth year. The very figures amaze us ! How much more would 



56 



we be impressed could we read the experiences and know the life-histories 
of all these venerable men and women who yet abide with us, only waiting 
till the shadows are a .little longer grown ! 

Imperfect as the record is which I have recited in your hearing, still it 
may serve to awaken gratitude to Him who hath cast your lot in pleasant ' 
places and given you a goodly heritage. Let it be remembered, however, 
that children have no honor who do not strive to add to the honor of 
their forefathers. Vain would be all the labor of this day, should we who 
speak fail to impress the lesson that pride of ancestry and boasted privi- 
leges only insure infamy complete, where there is no spirit of gratitude 
and no heroism of purpose to make the future brighter than the past hath 
been. 

Among all the names which have been recited this day with respect, none 
have been heard with so much of fondness as the names of men who lived 
not for themselves alone, for paltry gains, or petty pleasures, but for the 
good of others. There is no such thing as a legacy of personal merit. 

" They who take it 
By inheritance alone, are like stars 
Seen in the ocean, which were never there 
But for their bright originals in heaven." 

In conclusion, there are a few personal recollections which I shall take 
the liberty of mentioning. 

Twenty-five years ago, when only about old enough to cast the vote 
permitted to manhood, I became a resident of this county. From the 
first I learned to love it. I have ridden over its hills, climbed its moun- 
tains and wandered by its streams until they have become almost a part of 
my very being. For thirteen years, I have resided among you in the sum- 
mer time, sharing all the while your kindness and neighborly regard. Be- 
neath an old oak in this burial-ground lie the remains of my sainted mo- 
ther, and there, I trust, my own will rest when work is done and service 
ends in rest. I feel, therefore, that I am one of you, and in all that con- 
cerns your welfare, happiness, and prosperity, I am concerned. No stran- 
ger's heart, therefore, has been speaking to you ; and, because in all your 
weal or woe I must find delight or sorrow, let me say from the top of 
this century to which we have climbed, that, after all, life is vanity, unless 
it be sanctified in Christ, to virtue, truth, and heaven „ 



Jk. DDRESSES 

IN THE 

GROVE AND CHURCH. 



ADDRESSES II THE GROYE. 



Hon. Henry Hogeboom, Judge of the Supreme Court of the State, and 
resident at Hudson, was called to the chair. He opened the meeting with 
some interesting remarks, giving many pleasant reminiscences of his ear- 
lier days and professional labors in the county. He then gave, in his elo- 
quent, genial, and impressive way, some reminiscences of the clergy of the 
county as he saw them in his youth. He spoke of Rev. Dr. Sickles, James 
Romeyn, Peter S. Wynkoop, Quitman, Fonda, Wackerhagen, and others. 

ADDRESS OF J. SOUTHARD VAN WYCK, ESQ. 

After the able, the instructive, and the eloquent addresses made by the 
speakers of the day, I do not know that I can say any thing that will con- 
tribute to the interest of the occasion. Being called upon, however, to 
make a few remarks, and not expecting to be present at the next centennial 
of our church for certain reasons which we all appreciate and feel the force 
of, I could not well do less than respond. But I accept it rather as a com- 
pliment to myself, than as indicating a purpose on your part to have further 
light on the history of our church and town. I listened with the utmost 
satisfaction to the addresses of our church and town historians, and we all 
feel that they ably treated the subjects presented ; and while listening to 
them I was almost persuaded to believe that the old town of Claverack was 
the heart of America — the very Eden of the world. Some of you may think 
this rather extravagant ; but, be it as it may, I can truly say that I love the 
dear old town of Claverack, and every foot of its soil is sacred to me. 

To us who are the descendants of the first settlers of Claverack, the de- 
scendants of the founders or builders of this ancient edifice, whose spire 
for ages has pointed heavenward, this occasion is a delightful one and 
fraught with much interest. In this church our ancestors communed with 
their God, and the places they once filled with so much credit and honor to 
themselves we are now permitted to occupy. In fact, all the associations 
of our town and church are to us hallowed and dear ; they all remind us 
of our forefathers. When I go in yonder church or look upon its ancient 
walls, I am reminded of my ancestors, who there, in days gone by, and year 
after year, like the patriarchs of old, went up to the weekly worship of the 
Lord. When I look at the location of this church — the green lawn in 
front, the gentle slopes on either side, and this woodland back of it — I am 
reminded of their good judgment and their appreciation of the beautiful ; 
for never — never within the memory of man was a church edifice more delight- 



60 



fully located. When I ask myself where is their last resting-place, I have to 
take but a short walk from my old home to find myself beside the humble 
graves of one of my great-grandfathers' grandfather and many of his de- 
scendants. When I think of this graveyard — this city of the dead, or walk 
among its many mounds, I am reminded of the deceased relatives and 
friends whose bodies were there consigned to mother earth. So with all of 
us — the descendants of these early settlers of Claverack, these founders of 
our old Dutch church ; their memories are precious to us, and all the asso- 
ciations connected with our town and church will ever keep those memo- 
ries green and fresh. However humble may have been the birth, or retir- 
ing and unpretending the lives of these good old burghers of Claverack, we 
are still proud to proclaim to the world that they were our ancestors, be- 
cause, while they may not have been of blood ro} r al, their lives tell us that 
they were men in the truest sense of the word — that they were nature's 
noblemen. 

The allotted time of five minutes for each of us speakers in the grove 
will not permit me to extend my remarks, yet I can not refrain from add- 
ing that it affords me much pleasure, and that I esteem it a great privilege 
to celebrate with you the first centennial of our church and pay this tribute 
of respect to the memory of men and women in whose praise too much can 
not be said. But where are they now ? Gone, gone, gone, never to re- 
turn ; they are numbered among the dead. Not one of those living in 
1767, when the corner-stone of this edifice was laid, now survives. We 
have to rely upon history and tradition for our knowledge of them. This 
tells us that man is mortal ; this tells us in unmistakable language that not 
even the youngest of us present to-day, in the natural course of things — 
no, not even the fair babe whose eyes for the first are now taking in the 
sunlight of heaven — will be living in 1967 to celebrate the second centen- 
nial of our good old Reformed Protestant Dutch Church. 

Then let us so live that we may hereafter be numbered among the re- 
deemed in heaven ; let us live like honest Christian men and women, what- 
ever be our condition in life, that posterity, that our descendants, in cele- 
brating other and future centennials of our church, may be able to pay 
as high a tribute of respect to our memories as we in truth are able to pay 
to the memories of our once venerable ancestors who are now no more. 

John Gaul, Jr., of Hudson, also a native of the town, and a lawyer of 
eminence, spoke in cordial and earnest praise of the Holland blood and 
name, and commented upon the precious influence which the descendants 
of the Netherlands had exerted upon the affairs of church and state. 

Hon. Judge John C. Newkirk, of Hudson, next addressed the meeting. 
While he gave honor to his ancestors of Holland origin, and praised the 
excellences of the church in which he was born, baptized, and reared, still 
he was convinced that it was not the office of a church to preach the Gos- 
pel for people of one nationality, and therefore he was in favor of the grand 
old historic name Reformed, which the church of his forefathers brought 



61 



to this country. His remarks on that point were received with much de- 
monstration of warm approval on the part of the audience. 

Peter Van Buren, M.D., an elder in the Twenty -third Street Church, 
New-York, and a direct descendant of Dominie Fryenmout, was next intro- 
duced, and spoke with feeling and effect. He said he was glad to be in his 
native county again and participate in this great memorial occasion. He 
felt happy in hearing the past described, and shared a personal interest in 
all its treasured recollections. He was Dutch by blood, education, and as- 
sociation, and loving as he did the church of his forefathers, he wanted to 
see it advance under its rightful name, Reformed. 

REMARKS OF HON. THEODORE MILLER. 

Mr. President : In accepting the invitation of your Committee to be 
present upon this interesting occasion, it was my intention to remain a 
silent listener to the proceedings which this event has inaugurated. I feel, 
however, that it is not inappropriate for me, whose associations have been 
so intimately identified with those who have been closely connected with 
this sacred edifice, whose centennial anniversary we this day commemo- 
rate, and with this old town, honored as it is by its past history, to submit 
a few remarks. 

It is not my good fortune to be a native of this town ; but I am allied to 
it by ties as strong and indissoluble as if I had been born within its limits. 
And although not one of you, yet it seems to me as if there was no other 
spot on earth to which I am more strongly attached and with which I am 
more intimately connected. 

It was here that my ancestors, on my father's side, for several genera- 
tions were born, and in yonder cemetery repose the remains of many en- 
deared to me by the closest ties of kindred and of blood. And with the 
exception of my father, who removed to the city of Hudson to practice his 
profession at an early period of his life, and remained until his decease, 
in 1822, here they resided during their whole lives, to advanced old age, 
and here they died. 

According to family tradition, my grandfather and grandmother were, 
at a very early age, connected with this church, and each took an acrlve 
part in sustaining it until the times of their respective deaths. The former, 
if I am rightly informed, was for many years one of its most efficient sup- 
porters and active members. It has ever seemed to me almost like my own 
church, for under its ministrations my ancestors lived and died, and were 
instructed in spiritual matters. The name of the Rev. John Gebhard, one 
of its earliest pastors, and of his successor, the Rev. Richard Sluyter, are 
as familiar to me as household words, and, connected as they are with the 
history of this old church, will ever live in my memory; The old church 
on the hill, with its fine and beautiful location, its tall and stately trees, the 
tombstones to the memory of the departed, some of which stand within its 
shadow, have always occupied a prominent place in my recollection. 

There it has stood for a century, with its spire pointing to heaven, 
seeming almost proud in its power and strength, extending through its de- 



62 



voted pastors a salutary religious influence over all within its reach, and 
promoting the welfare, happiness, and salvation of the community within 
which it has been located. How many have first received the light of re- 
ligious truth within the walls of that edifice ? How many have been borne 
to the tomb within the sound of its tolling bell, and received the last solemn 
rites of religion at the hands of those who have ministered at its altar, some 
of whom have long since departed to " the undiscovered country from 
whose bourn no traveler returns." 

In yonder churchyard sleep the men of the past, identified with this 
church and this locality. There repose in quiet the remains of one of Co- 
lumbia's most gifted and distinguished sons, William W. Van Ness, a man 
of giant intellect, who ranked first and foremost among the great men of 
the nation. 

There stands the old church, almost as it was one hundred years ago, 
grand in its majesty, sacred beauty, and loveliness, a living monument of 
the past to us and to future generations of the first growth of the denomi- 
nation it represents and of the religious feelings of our ancestors at this 
early period of our history. It speaks to us to-day in trumpet tones, and 
it will speak to future generations as they arise and gather around the 
altar within its hallowed walls, of truth, of religion, and of immortality. 

My earliest childhood is connected with this place and its surroundings. 
It Avas here that I frequently came to visit my relatives and friends while 
a mere boy, and the events of this period of life never fail to leave a lasting- 
impression upon the mind. It appears to me like my own home, and I never 
return to it but with feelings of joy and the highest gratification. 

There is much, too, Mr. President, in this good old town to awaken the 
liveliest sensations. It had considerable to do with our early struggles for 
independence, and its soil reechoed with the tramp of some portion of the 
army who fought and bled for, and who won, our liberties. 

From here emanated many of the soldiers who were engaged in that 
great contest. I am proud to say that my grandfather, although young in 
years, had some little to do with that eventful struggle. And let us not 
forget that here too stood the old courthouse, now an elegant private resi- 
dence, where for twenty years gathered the legal talent of the State — where 
Hamilton, Spencer, Van Ness, and others, the giants of the legal profession 
of that day, were wont to exhibit their superior talents, skill, and learning 
in the trial of causes and in solving the knotty problems of the law. It 
was here that Dr. Crossweil was tried before Chief-Justice Lewis, in 1803, 
upon an indictment for a libel upon President Jefferson, and found guilty. 
The case involved the question whether the truth could be given in evi- 
dence, and upon a review. of the proceedings before the Supreme Court, the- 
Judges were equally divided in opinion. The Legislature passed a declara- 
tory act settling the law, in consequence of which a new trial was awarded. 

I trust that I may be permitted to remark that there is no town in the 
county which has contributed more to the eminent and distinguished men 
who have adorned the annals of the State and nation than the town of 
Claverack. It was the birthplace of William H. Van Ness, Jacob Kutsen 



63 



Van Rensselaer, Joseph D. Monell, Killian Miller, Dr. William Bay and his 
two brothers, Thomas and Herman Bay, of the Gebhards, and others now 
no more, who have left a record which will not suffer in comparison with 
any other names which this noble county has produced. 

From this town also have originated many who are still living and en- 
gaged in active life who have done it much honor. I believe that a con- 
siderable portion of the members of the bar in Hudson either were born 
here or can trace their ancestry from some of the noblest sons of Claverack. 

I have alluded mainly to the past and to some of the old reminiscences 
which this occasion is so well calculated to awaken. What shall I say of 
the present ? The improvements which have been made in almost every 
locality have been singularly marked and apparent. Nearly every farm 
and every farm-house bears evidence of culture, taste, and progress. The 
old church itself has been made to conform to the requirements of the age, 
and it has planted its branches in different directions, to meet the wants 
and wishes of the community. And here, in our very midst, has arisen, 
as it were by magic, an academic institution of large proportions, dispens- 
ing its blessings far and wide, and extending the benefits of education in 
the higher branches to the door of every one who desire them. Originated 
by the enlightened and liberal-minded men of this town, by the aid of 
a talented, energetic, and sagacious principal,"' who I regret to find is not 
here to participate with us upon this joyous occasion — and an able corps 
of professors, it has become one of the necessary institutions of the country. 

Nothing contributes more to the elevation and refinement of a commu 
nity than a seat of learning, and he who conducts such an enterprise suc- 
cessfully is entitled to the warmest thanks of the public. The gentleman 
to whom I have alluded, who has had the main charge of this institution, 
has my best wishes for his happiness and prosperity, and for his safe re- 
turn to the home which he has temporarily left and which he has contri- 
buted so much to benefit, to beautify, and adorn. 

Time admonishes me that these desultory remarks should be brought 
to a close. In conclusion, I can only express my fervent wishes that this 
venerable temple of the living God, endeared to us by so many recollec- 
tions of the past, by the blessings of heaven, under the charge of the distin- 
guished divine who now presides over it, and his successors, may continue 
as useful and as prosperous in the future as it has been in the past. 

Hon. Peter S. Danforth, of Schoharie county, made the final address. It 
was well conceived and well expressed. He brought the congratulations 
of old Schoharie to the people of old Claverack, and felt happy in being 
able to participate in the exercises of an occasion so fruitful in its memo- 
ries, so grateful in its suggestions concerning the future. He claimed to 
have as warm an attachment to the church of his choice as any other per- 
son, but his love for it compelled him to desjre its extension, and he therefore 
gave his hearty support to the movements now in progress to secure its 
enlargement. After the meeting in the grove the people again repaired to 
the church. 

* Rev. Alonzo Flack. 



ADDRESSES IN THE CHURCH. 



ADDRESS BY KEY. IRA C. BOICE. 

r My Friends : It gives me great pleasure to be present with you on this 
centennial anniversary. I feel very much at home in this place and with these 
surroundings. The old familiar faces upon which I am permitted to look 
to-day make me feel that I am no stranger here, nor in a strange land. 
This old church, though with her new dress on to-day, has to me a home- 
like appearance, and wears the aspect of an old friend. Yea, as I entered 
your pleasant village, a day or two since, it caused quite an effort to con- 
vince me and make me realize that I was not returning to my home. 
Though it is now about eight years since I resigned the charge of this flock, 
yet there are not a few in this assembly whom I recognize as the sheep and 
the lambs of this fold, and who in turn will recognize the well-known, the 
familiar voice of the under shepherd who was wont in former times to lead 
them into the green pastures of gospel truth and by the still waters of the 
Spirit's influence. The very ground upon which I tread as I walk your 
streets, the houses upon which I look, (whose latch-string alwa} r s hung out 
to me,) and the very trees, though with somewhat extended branches and 
enlarged trunks, each and all wear to me a domestic appearance. And well 
they may, for upon this ground I walked for fifteen years, and some of 
these houses I saw reared, and not a few of these trees I planted and 
pruned, and they are to-day holding up their fruit and extending their um- 
brageous, arm-like branches as if to welcome and embrace an old friend. 
Yea, the whistling wind through these noble old oaks, the birds which 
warble in their branches, the murmuring brook by your village side, and 
the hearty greetings I receive on meeting you, each and all awaken a re- 
membrance of fondly cherished friendships. But I pause and ask your in- 
dulgence for these outgushings of a full heart. As I look upon this large 
congregation, old familiar faces I miss upon which I loved to look, for 
their faces were but indexes of their warm, loving hearts. In the flesh I 
know I shall see them no more, for death has been here. The office-bearer, 
the father, the mother, the husband or wife, and the blooming youth are 
gone. They sleep their last sleep. " Lover and friend thou hast put far 
from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness." Some whom I miss I 
have reason to believe have made a good exchange, for "for them to live 
was Christ, and to die was gain," and as they closed their eyes upon all 
earthly scenes, they were enabled to say : "I am now ready to be offered, 



65 



and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I 
have finished my course, I have kept the faith : Henceforth there is laid up 
for me a crown of righteousness, which the righteous Judge shall give me 
at that day." And now they sing : 

" I have found the joy of heaven, 

I am one of the angel band, 
To my head a crown is given, 

And a harp is in my hand ; 
I have learned the song they sing 

Whom Jesus hath made free, 
And the glorious walls of heaven still ring 

With my new-born melody. 

" No sin, no grief, no pain, 

Safe in my happy, home ; 
My fears all fled, my doubts all slain, 

My hour of triumph come ; 
0 friends of my mortal years, 

The trusted and the true ! 
Ye're walking still in the valley of tears, 

But I wait to welcome you. 

" Do I forget ? oh ! no ; 

For memory's golden chain 
Shall bind my heart to the hearts below 

Till they meet and touch again : 
Each link is strong and bright, 

And love's electric flame 
Flows freely down like a river of light 

To the world from whence I came." 

And though the ranks of the faithful soldiers may have been thinned, 
yet your number of church membership has not been lessened. New re- 
cruits have been gathered in, and have buckled on the gospel armor, and 
are ready for the conflict, and to such we say : 

" In thine armor fearless stand, 
Girded by Jehovah's hand, 
Till within the promised land 
He shall set thee free." 

You know not, my friends, how my heart rejoiced when I read in the 
organ of our Church of the revival of religion with which God had blessed 
you, and of the goodly number gathered into the communion of this church. 
If it had been a revival in my own present charge, and an ingathering of 
souls there, it could scarcely have rejoiced my heart more. And I know, 
my friends, that you are ready to unite with me and say : " Bless the Lord, 
0 my soul : and all that is within me, bless his holy name, and forget not 
all his benefits !" I congratulate you to-day, while God is smiling upon 
5 



66 



you and giving you tokens of his presence and spiritual prosperit3 r , and for 
the long-continued providence that has watched over this church. God has 
blessed you in giving you a faithful pastor. His labors have been abun- 
dantly blessed, and many souls have been given him as seals of his minis- 
try. He is still permitted to stand upon these walls as the accredited am- 
bassador of Christ, beseeching you in his stead to be reconciled to God. 
May his life be long spared and his usefulness be unending. Next to your 
spiritual growth, I rejoice to behold your apparent temporal prosperity, for 
I have always considered the outward appearance of the church, of the 
parsonage, and the condition of the church property in general, together 
with the minister's salar}', promptly or not promptly paid, a good index of 
the state of the heart of the congregation. Never shall I forget the im- 
pression made upon my mind on my first visit to your village. The dilapi- 
dated state of the church and parsonage, the apparent neglect, and a want 
of interest was everywhere manifest, and admonished me of much hard 
work to be done. Now, this state of things we have reason to believe was 
owing, in a great degree, to the declining health of my esteemed prede- 
cessor, the now sainted Sluyter. During the last few years of his minis- 
try, being warned by the nature of his disease of his speedy departure from 
his active field of labor, his time and remaining strength was given to pre- 
pare for his rest and in winning souls for Christ. "He rests from his 
labors, and his works do follow him." But I am free to add, no sooner was 
the call made to arise and build, than many coadjutors rallied around me, 
and the work was done, and this Zion and her parsonage became the praise 
and admiration of all. And as I look around me to-day and out upon these 
grounds, I see much to praise and commend. In conclusion, let me exhort 
you not to cease, but "walk about this Zion, and go round about her ; tell 
the towers thereof, mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that 
ye may tell it to the generation following." And may God grant that by 
these centennial exercises to-day may be erected an Ebenezer, inscribed, 
"Hitherto the Lord hath helped us," which shall stand as a memorial of 
the long-continued goodness of the Lord, and tell our children and our 
children's children "what God has wrought." And while life continues 
and I am permitted to live in the flesh, this old church and her best inter- 
ests will be near to my heart and shall share in my unworthy petitions. 
Men, brothers, and fathers, "pray for the peace of (this) Jerusalem, for 
they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity 
within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now 
say, Peace be within thee." 

ADDRESS OF KEY. A. P. VAN GIESON. 

Rev. Mr. Tan Gieson spoke substantially as follows : 

The brother who has just spoken has set an excellent example, which it 
will be well for those who follow him to imitate. His address has been 
brief. Mine will probably be still more brief, for interesting and delightful 



(37 



as these exercises are to us all, I can not but remember that human pa- 
tience, like every thing else human, is finite, and may be exhausted. More- 
over, I can not but feel that personally, I stand before you at somewhat of 
a disadvantage. The interest of to-day is divided between the old and the 
new. On the one hand are the old fathers, long since dead and gone, and 
these old walls, builded by their pious toil, and the old gray-headed men 
still living, who recount the events and describe the scenes of the olden 
times ; and on the other hand are these new adornments recently added, 
and in their fresh beauty bearing such eloquent testimony to the children's 
filial regard for the holy house in which their fathers worshiped, and these 
new faces of brethren from abroad, whose presence is more or less unfamiliar. 
But I know not in which of these categories to place myself. To this con- 
gregation my presence is not new enough to be attractive as a novelty, and 
I am not quite old enough yet to be interesting as an antiquity. I have 
the misfortune to stand just midway, at the point most of all devoid of in- 
terest, and, bearing this in mind, will detain you but a very short time. 

In the matter of antiquities I have but one item to add to the sum 
already contributed. You see this venerable-looking book which I hold in 
my hand. It is parchment bound ; the covers are secured by leather 
thongs ; the paper has become yellow, and the ink has faded through lapse 
of years. The handwriting is in an antique character, and in the old 
Dutch language. This book contains the oldest records extant of the Clav- 
erack church. On the second leaf is a copy of the call extended to the 
first minister Of the church, Dominie Patrus Van Driessen ; and incorpo- 
rated with that call we find a short historical sketch, to which, as far as I 
can recollect, no speaker on this occasion has alluded. This ancient re- 
cord states that in the beginning the people of this neighborhood were de- 
pendent for public divine service upon ministers from Albany. It farther 
informs us that the people of Claverack, out of regard for the aged and in- 
firm, the women and children ; and because they thought it unbecoming a 
Christian people to neglect their Christian dut}^ ; and also through the 
prompting (or as the Dutch has it, the vpwdking) of the Patroon Hendrick 
Van Rensselaer, did, in the year 1719, unite in an effort to build a church 
and secure services of a settled minister for themselves. The record adds, 
that, on account of their sins, God was not pleased to crown the effort with 
success ; and it was not until the year 1727 that the desire of their hearts 
was realized, in the settlement of Dominie Van Driessen, the building of 
a house of worship, and the complete and efficient organization of the 
church. 

Now this record is exceedingly interesting on many accounts. In the first 
place it shows us very clearly what manner of men our forefathers were. 
It brings out in strong relief some of the" noblest and most striking traits 
of their character. They were conscientious, God-fearing, church-loving 
men; for they thought it a Christian duty to secure the stated means of 
grace, and felt that the neglect of that duty would be unbecoming to them 
as a Christian people. They were humble men, deeply penetrated with a 



GS 



sense of their unworthiness before God ; for they confess that their failure 
at the outset was but the just recompense for their sins. They were con- 
siderate and tender-hearted men ; for they tell us with touching simplicity 
that they had special regard for the aged and infirm, and the women and 
children. The old proverbial Dutch perseverance is also strikingly mani- 
fested ; for, failing at the start, they still kept to their purpose, and after an 
interval of eight years tried again. And yet with the perseverance is also 
a hinting at Dutch slowness ; for it seems that they needed a little waking 
up from the Patroon. 

This record also throws some additional light upon the question concern- 
ing the date of the church organization. The document is drawn up in the 
name of the Consistory, and has appended to it the signatures of all the 
members of the Consistory, and its whole tenor is such as to establish a 
probability, amounting almost to a certainty, that there was a regularly 
organized Consistory at least as far back as 1719. 

This is the only positive contribution I have to make to the collection of 
antiquities. I will detain you a few moments longer, while I take the lib- 
erty of calling in question the genuineness of one or two contributions 
made this morning. If I remember rightly, Brother Zabriskie 'informed 
us that the more ancient portion of this church edifice is built of bricks 
brought from Holland ; and Dr. Porter also claimed that there is a dwelling- 
house somewhere in the neighborhood, likewise built of bricks brought 
across the sea more than a century ago. With all due deference to the 
opinions of these esteemed brethren, I can not but think that, on this point, 
they are mistaken. I do not believe that there is a single brick from Hol- 
land in this church, and although some of our more ancient dwelling-houses 
can still show some Holland tiles or bricks in their hearths and chimney- 
pieces, I do not believe that there is a single house built of such brick any- 
where in the neighborhood. Appearances are altogether against such a sup- 
position. There are the bricks in the church walls now, and any one, by 
simply looking at them, can see that they look just like those made in this 
country, and we know that, according to all descriptions given, the Holland 
bricks were quite different in size and shape, and even in color and texture. 
Moreover, it is certain that bricks were made in this region before the 
church was built, and the question naturally arises, why should our fore- 
fathers, who were never wanting in thrift and good sense, import such 
cumbersome material, at increased expenses, from beyond the sea, when it 
was to be had in any quantity desired at their own doors ? 

But it may be said that there is a vague tradition afloat about the bricks 
being brought from Holland. Well, my friends, such traditions have to be 
received with many grains of allowance. While we were in the grove, a short 
time ago, a friend told me of a Dutch family that had an old ox-sled on 
their farm, which, year by year, grew older and more dilapidated and ven- 
erable, until at last, somehow, there sprang up a tradition in the family 
that the ox-sled was brought from Holland, although every stick of timber 
in it was evidently of American growth. The tradition about the bricks 



69 



is most probably of this ox-sled variety, and might very properly be sus- 
pected, even if there were no opposing testimony. But in this case there 
is such testimony. During my pastorate here I sought information on 
this very point from several of the older inhabitants, and all who professed 
to know any thing about the matter averred that the bricks of the church 
were made on a neighboring farm. They pointed out the field in which 
the bricks were burned, and if you will go to the owner of that field to- 
day, he will tell you that it is still known as " The Brick-Kiln Lot." This, 
it seems to me, renders the theory of Hollandish origin utterly untenable. 

I have said thus much, not because there is any gratification in dispel- 
ling a pleasing illusion, nor because I wish to detract from the credit of 
Holland. Holland, as we all know, is a country which, in its day, has 
had no inconsiderable notoriety, and by us certainly will always be spoken 
of with respect. But to-day we are in Claverack, and will give to old Clav- 
erack all the credit which belongs to her. Holland has no need to borrow 
or filch from her, because Holland has enough credit of her own. For the 
honor of Claverack then, as well as the sake of the truth, I must aver my 
belief that this church is in the full sense of the term the Church of Clav- 
erack ; that it was built by her sons ; and that every brick in the ancient 
walls, from the foundation to the roof, was taken from her soil. 

Mr. Van Gieson closed with a few sentences expressive of his abiding 
affection for the church, and his desire and prayer for its continued pros- 
perity. 

ADDRESS OF REV. MR. SEBRING. 

Rev. Mr. Sebring, of Mellenville, said: The corner-stone of our house of 
worship was laid July 4th, 1838. It was dedicated to the worship of God De- 
cember 13th, 1838. The church was organized December 24th, 1838, under 
the title of The Second Reformed Dutch Church of Claverack, in Mellenville. 
It was composed of ninety-one members from the R. D. Church of Clav- 
erack, sixteen from the R. D. Church of Hillsdale, three from the R. D. 
Church of Ghent, and two from the R. D. Church of Kinderhobk. From 
the date of dedication to October 18th, 1842, the pulpit was supplied on 
Sabbath afternoons, alternately, by Rev. Richard Sluyter and Rev. Peter S. 
Wynkoop, when Rev. John C. Vandervoort was installed pastor, who re- 
mained until the winter of 1845. The Rev. John S. Himrod was installed 
pastor March 25th, 1845, and remained until 1851 ; Rev. John H. Pitcher 
was installed pastor January 28th, 1852, and remained until 1861. The 
present pastor was installed October 22d, 1862. 

ADDRESS OF REV. J. B. DRURY. 

The First Reformed Dutch Church of Ghent, (formerly Squampamack,) 
originated only eight years after the erection of the Claverack church. The 
rebuilding of the parent church seems to have animated the members of the 
north-eastern part of the congregation to undertake the erection of a "meet- 



70 

ing-house" in their own neighborhood, which undertaking would appear to 
have been accomplished during the year 1774. In the spring of 1775 — -just 
as the first guns of the Revolutionary struggle were being fired— the Dutch 
settlers on Squampamack Flats met in their new meeting-house to organize 
themselves into a church by electing their first Consistory. 

The old church book, bound in vellum, and of stamped paper, (having 
the seals of Great Britain and of King George in water-mark,) is yet in a 
good state of preservation. The title-page reads: "Allgemeen Kerkenboek 
dei Nederduitchen Gereformeerden Geweente Jesu Christi, of Squampa- 
mack, begonnen Ao. 1775, f. 28. Maert." 

It further quotes the apostolic injunction, which the book itself illus- 
trates, " Let all things be done decently and in order." 1 Cor. 14 : 40. 
And states that, on the 18th, " The first Consistory was installed, and the 
first sermon preached in the new church, by Doct. Do. Gerhard Daniel 
Cock." The text was, Apoc. 3 : 18, "I counsel thee to buy of me gold 
tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich ; and white raiment, that thou 
mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and 
anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see." 

The Consistory were: Elders — Zijur Yer Kooren, Zacharias Kernreich, 
Lauwrentz Hogeboom ; Deacons — Omphy Moor, Johannes Hogeboom, 
Junior. 

On the same day, March 18th, 1775, in the presence of Dr. Cock, " preach- 
er in the camp and at Rhinebeck," the consistory of the church of Clave- 
rack, viz., Elders, Johannes Holsappel, "Wilhelm V. Aolsteen, Johan Adam 
Schmit, Richard Ysselsteen ; Deacons, Matthew Hallenbeck, Jonas Schen- 
kel, Jeremias Johannes Muller, met with Zacharias Kernreich, Lauwrence 
Hogeboom, Johannes Hogeboom, Junior, and Johannes Moedt, of the "new 
congregation," and agreed upon certain articles regulating the relation of 
the churches to each other. Subsequent to this there appears upon the 
record a call, bearing date Oct. 17th, 1782, upon the Rev. Do. Johannes 
Gabriel Gebhard, to preach and administer the sacraments in the church 
of Squampamack, in connection with his duties in Claverack, for which he 
is promised the sum of £20, New-York money. The call is signed by 
Lauwrence Hogeboom, Elder, and John Hogeboom, Deacon. 

The only further record in respect to this old organization is the installa- 
tion, by Rev. Dominie Burke, preacher in Schodack, of a consistory, June 
25th, 1801. The names of this Consistory were: Elders — John Hogeboom 
and Philip Dunsbagh ; Deacons — "William P. Link and Jacob Loop. 

In connection with this organization there were baptized from 1775 to 
1816, about three hundred infants ; and from 1775 to 1790, the date of 
the last record under this head, forty-six were received into the communion 
of the church. 

The present church edifice was erected in 1816. It was built upon the 
site of the old church, by the conjoined efforts of the Reformed and Lutheran 
congregations. The church was dedicated to the service of God early in 
the spring of 1817. Opening prayer was made by Rev. Mr. TTackerhagen, 



71 



German Lutheran minister ; sermon preached by Rev. Mr. Quitman, Luthe- 
ran minister at Red Hook, from Psalm 133 : 1, "Behold, how good and 
pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." The Rev. Mr. 
Sickles, pastor of Reformed Church of Kinderhook, made the dedicatory 
prayer. 

In April, 1819, a petition was prepared, and, in May, presented with 
ninet}r-four signatures to the Classis of Rensselaer, asking for the organiza- 
tion of a church. The request was granted, and May 4th, 1819, the church 
was organized, with William P. Link and Tunis J. Snyder as elders, and 
John Jacobie, Junior, and George A. Shufelt as deacons, and received under 
the care of Classis. 

Considerable time elapsed before the new organization felt itself in a 
condition to call a pastor, owing to a refusal of the Consistories of the 
Kinderhook and Claverack churches, to dismiss to the new church many 
who desired to connect with it. The matter was several times before 
Classis, but was not decided until September 23d, 1822, when Classis fixed 
the boundaries of the new church. Very soon after the settlement of this dif- 
ficulty, a call was made upon the Rev. Peter S. Wynkoop, which was ap- 
proved by Classis Nov. 26th, 1822, and he installed Jan. 9th, 1823. His 
pastorate extended over a period of twenty years. In 1822, the number of 
communicants was one hundred and thirty-five. In the winter of 1838-9, 
there was quite an extensive revival ; and the next spring the number 
of communicants reported was two hundred and twenty-five. A revision of 
this list in 1841 reduced the number to one hundred and fifty-four. In 
1838, the Mellenville (Second Claverack) church was organized, and took 
several families, and a few members, from the church of Ghent. 

In 1843, the church of Second or West-Ghent was organized almost ex- 
clusively out of the parent church. Early in the same year the church of Chat- 
ham was begun, and subsequently took a number of families and members. 

In the summer of 1843, Rev. P. S. Wynkoop resigned his call, and termi- 
nated his long and useful pastorate 9 there. 

April 3d, 1845, Rev. John De Witt was called, and continued as pastor 
until the fall of 1848. During his pastorate the exclusive use of the church 
building was secured, by purchase of the Lutherans' interest. 

Rev. John Gray was called Sept. 18th, 1848 ; his ministry embraced seven 
years, closing Nov. 5th, 1855. He was followed by Rev. W. W. Letson, 
whose call bears date April 15th, 1856. He was succeeded by the present 
pastor in 1864. 

The church edifice has been recently repaired, both within and without ; 
and though the church has never regained the strength it lost by the or- 
ganization of contiguous churches, it is yet a daughter which it need not 
shame the mother church of Claverack to own as her eldest. 



» 



72 



REV. E. N. SEBRING. 

The following statement was made by Mr. Sebring : 

At a meeting of the Classis of Rensselaer in the Church of Claverack, 
April 18th, 1843, a petition was presented, asking for the organization of a 
church in the western part of the town of Ghent. The prayer was 
granted, and on the 15th day of May a Consistory was chosen, the Rev. 
Dr. Gosman presiding at the appointment of Classis. The church, as 
then organized, bears the name of the Second Reformed Protestant Dutch 
Church of Ghent. 

The corner-stone was laid on the 14th of June by the Rev. Dr. Gosman, 
and on the 15th the certificate of organization was acknowledged before 
Darius Peck, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the county of Co- 
lumbia, and filed and recorded the same day. 

The Rev. T. F. Wyckoff was ordained to the Gospel ministry and in- 
stalled pastor of said church on the 12th day of July, 1843. Sermon 
preached by his father, Rev. Dr. I. N. Wyckoff, of Albany. Charge to the 
minister by Rev. Dr. Gosman. Charge to people by Rev. Mr. Porter, of 
Chatham. Preached his farewell sermon on the 4th day of August, 1844. 

Rev. George R. Williamson was ordained and installed pastor on the 
lGth day of October, 1843. Sermon by Rev. George H. Fisher, of New- 
York. Charge to pastor, Rev, Ira C. Boice. Charge to people by Rev. B. 
Van Zandt. Continued pastor about three years. Called to Church of 
Amity, New -York. Perished on board the Reindeer, September, 1852. 

Rev. J. C. Van der Wort entered upon his labors on the last Sabbath of 
April, 1848, and was installed on the 19th of May succeeding — Rev. Edwin 
Holmes, of Nassau, preaching the sermon. Continued his labors until the 
fall of 1850, when he was called home. 

Rev. Jacob H. Van Wort was installed pastor of this church October 
12th, 1852, and closed his ministry in July, 1865. 

Rev. Elbert N. Sebring, ordained and installed November 15th, 1865. 
Sermon by Rev. E. A. Collier, of Kinderhook. Charge to the pastor by 
Rev. A. I. Sebring, of Mellenville. Charge to people by Rev. Isaac L. Kip, 
of Stuyvesant Falls. 

REV. J. S. HIMROD 

Said : The church of Greenport sends Christian salutation, and con- 
gratulates her foster-mother on rounding up a period of a century with such 
a brilliant history. 

The daughter deems this a proper occasion on which to express her gra- 
titude for maternal kindness, prayers, counsels, and contributions. 

The church of Greenport was organized in the year 1836. She held a 



73 



collegiate bond with the church of Linlithgow until 1848, when the Rev. 
Polhemus Van Wyck was ordained and installed as pastor. The Rev. Ja- 
cob N. Voorhies succeeded him in 1851. The Rev. H. W. Finch became 
the pastor of the church in the year 1857. He was followed by the present 
pastor in the year 1861. The church is small but not feeble— possessing 
the means of grace and self-sustaining. 

Among the many traditions presented here this day, which now have 
become written history, is one of the people of Greenport. It runs thus : 
«* Thomas Decker presented and drew the first stick of timber for this edi- 
fice." The donor then lived, and when old died, near by the site of the 
church in Greenport. His descendants were from the first, and still are, a 
constituent portion of our church and congregation. 

Our church edifice has well-nigh served its day and generation. A new 
house, in some acceptation of the term, is manifest destiny for us ; and, 
doubtless, if the mother church desires it, she will be favored with the pri- 
vilege of bearing a distinguished part in that enterprise. 

ADDRESS OF REV. JOHN McCLELLAN HOLMES. 

I 

The charm of these delightful services is closely connected with the 
fact that this is a family gathering. We meet at this centenary festival as 
members of the same original household, our veins tingling with the same 
life-blood, and our souls swelling with the same kindred affection. We 
who are descended from this mother church come back to-day to greet her 
in her old age, and to congratulate her upon the fact that her eye is not 
dimmed nor her natural force abated. And as we gaze upon her, venerable 
with years and doubly venerable because of her lifelong devotion to Christ, 
we can not but be proud of our ecclesiastical lineage. Nor, if I mistake 
not, is this goodly mother a whit the less inclined to boast of her returning 
children. On the contrary, while she glories in this venerable sanctuary 
and in the precious memories which cluster around it, yet, feeling the senti- 
ment and borrowing the language of the Roman mother, she points to her 
children and exclaims, " These are my jewels !" It is pleasant thus to en- 
joy a family reunion in the courts of the Lord. How can it fail to remind 
us of that more glorious gathering in the upper sanctuary ! 

Of the church which I represent to-day, it can scarcely be necessary for 
me to speak at length. Its history is so familiar to all within the sound of 
my voice, that I need not recite it here. The original settlement of Hudson, 
or, as it was first called, Claverack Landing, was composed chiefly of 
Quakers, from Providence and Nantucket. These persons brought with 
them their peculiar religious views, and until 1790 the only church in Hud- 
son was connected with the Society of Friends. In that year the Presbyte- 
rian church was organized, and into it all who held the common faith of 
the Presbyterians and Reformed entered, dwelling together in unity and 
laboring jointly for the cause of their common Master. In the summer of 
1835, however, a few individuals connected with the Presbyterian church 



74: 



of Hudson, who had been reared in the Reformed Dutch Church, together 
with a few others belonging to the church of Claverack, inaugurated a 
movement contemplating a new church enterprise. The result was the or- 
ganization, on the twentieth day of September of that year, of the Reformed 
Dutch Church of Hudson. From a small shoot it has become a large and 
flourishing branch of Christ, the living vine. Already it has borne much 
fruit. God grant it may bear much more ! 

With the names and virtues of its successive pastors you are all fami- 
liar. I need not speak to-day of Dr. Fisher, whose ministry in the church's 
infancy was so successful, and who, after having filled several prominent 
positions in our denomination, still lives to prosecute with vigor the work 
so dear to his heart. I need not speak of Dr. Gosman, that "old man elo- 
quent," whose silvery speech, accompanied with the unction of the Holy 
One, was so wont to move the minds and hearts of his hearers, and who, 
in a green old age, was transferred, scarcely two years since, from the Church 
militant to the Church triumphant. Nor need I speak of Dr. Demarest, my 
immediate predecessor, who, during his thirteen years' ministry in Hudson, 
was a model of a Christian pastor, and who now occupies with such ability 
and success^ the chair of Sacred Rhetoric and Pastoral Theology in our 
Seminary at New-Brunswick. The labors of all its ministers have been 
greatly blessed of God, and to-day, with its membership larger than ever 
before, and its sanctuary in process of enlargement and renovation, it gives 
glory to God and greeting to its mother. 

It is not meet, however, that these centennial services should be de- 
voted solely to self-congratulation. There are higher thoughts than these 
suggested by the gathering of to-day. Certainly two lessons of practical 
wisdom and experience are derivable from what we have seen and heard. 

The history of this church for the past hundred years illustrates most 
forcibly the conservative influence of an earnest spirituality on the part of 
God's people. For many years there was little apparent vitality in this 
portion of the body of Christ. Piety seemed at a comparatively low ebb, 
and, so long as this was the case, the general interest of the church declined. 
But when at last a man of God was settled here, whose heart was all aglow 
with holy fire, and who communicated his own spiritual warmth to the peo- 
ple of his charge, a new and prosperous era was inaugurated. The success 
of this church is coeval with its spirituality. The trumpet which announced 
the resurrection of its graces, proclaimed as well the commencement of its 
growth. And so it always is with the Church of Christ. We who to-day 
surround as children our venerable mother may learn the lesson that the 
true conservator of our church-life is deep and all-absorbing spirituality. 
Piety invariably precedes progress. 

But this is not all. The review which has to-day been taken of the past 
hundred years illustrates with equal pertinency and force the blessed 
effects of aggressive efforts in behalf of the Redeemer's kingdom. This 
church since the infusion of spirituality into her life has been an aggressive 
church. Not satisfied with promoting her own welfare, she has sought to 



75 



secure the welfare of others. Her exertions have been largely put forth in 
the direction of church extension. And to-day she can point to five influ- 
ential churches which wholly or in part have been organized through her 
instrumentality. Blessed have been the results of her efforts upon these 
several churches. But thrice blessed have been their effects upon her. 
The reflex influence of her endeavors has been almost incalculable. Scat- 
tering she has increased, and watering others she has been watered also 
herself. Thus God ever decrees, and thus he ever executes. The faithful 
servant is rewarded by and for his faithfulness. 

To-day, then, as we close these centennial services, let us gather up 
these lessons and store them in our minds and hearts. They are lessons 
derived from the century that is past, which deserve to be practiced in the 
century that is to come. Be it ours in our several positions and relations 
to maintain and manifest an earnest spirituality and an aggressive activity. 
Between one and the other let no divorce be instituted, let no discordance 
ever be suggested. So far from this, animated by the two in their closest 
conjunction and harmony, let us illustrate the spirit and perform the acts 
of our Divine Redeemer. So doing we shall receive his approbation on 
earth and enjoy his regards in heaven. Our impress will be made upon 
this century of time. Our glory will be announced through the centuries 
of eternity. 



APPENDIX. 



[The following paper was furnished by Stephen B. Miller, 
Esq. :] 

THE MILLER FAMILY. 

There is a tradition held by the Claverack branch of the Mil- Tradition, 
ler family, that their ancestors early came from Holland with the 
Yan Rensselaers. 

This is confirmed by the following statement: 

Daniel D. Barnard, Esq., of Albany, in his discourse upon the ^- J*- Bar " 
life and services of General Stephen Yan Rensselaer, speaking of gee Haight's 
the old Patroon of Holland, says : Genealogy. 

" The Ten Broecks, Mullers, Hogebooms, Bensons, and Yan 
Cortlandts came with him from Holland in 1637, and it is be- 1637 - 
lieved other families came also." 

Judge Benson, in his mss. to the New-York Historical Society, Benson, 
makes the same statement as to the Yan Cortlandts. 

Dr. O'Callaghan, the author of the History of New Nether- ^ n °' CalIa " 
lands, considers the statement of Mr. Barnard erroneous in the 
following particular : 

"The old Patroon of Holland," he asserts, "never came to 
this country, but transacted all his business through a member 
of the family sent over by him, termed ' a director.' " He thinks 
Mr. Barnard to have been misled by a tradition current in the 
Van Rensselaer family at a later period, that the old Patroon once 
came over at a very early date, transacted his business, remain- 
ing but a short time and returning to Holland. 

Dr. O'Callaghan states there is nothing to sustain this tra- 
dition ; that the evidence derived from the records of the family, 
and every other source, proves the contrary. 

It is his opinion that Johannes Yan Rensselaer, or Jan the Bap- 
tiste, was the first of the family who came to this country, in 
the year 1651, other members of the family following from time 1651. 
to time. 

Mr. Barnard gives no authority for his statement ; but, doubt- 
less, received his information from the Yan Rensselaer famity. 
Dr. O'Callaghan is deemed perfectly trustworthy as an histo- 



80 



1C51 or about rian. We accept his opinion, therefore, fixing the year 1651, 

tfed. ler3 S6t " or a P er iocl within a few years thereafter, as the time when 
the family of Mullers or Muldors settled in this country. 
The baptismal dates hereinafter given confirm this opinion. 

Nykh-k. The Van Rensselaers came from the village of Nykirk, or Niew- 

kirck, (meaning new church,) situated on the Zuider Zee, in the 
province of Gelderland, about twenty-five miles south-west from 

D tM° h M u^ J ^ ms ^ er( ^ am » as located on a very ancient Dutch map of Holland. 

Coming with them, there can be but little doubt that the Mul- 
lers (and other families mentioned) came from the same place. 

This is confirmed by the friendly feeling evinced by the Van 
Rensselaers in the duties of sponsorship assumed by them at the 
baptisms hereinafter mentioned. It is confirmed, also, by the 
fact that to the children of the Mullers were given the names 
of different members of the Van Rensselaer family. These names 
in the families of Muller and Hogeboom can be traced to the 
present generation. That they came with them as friends and 
neighbors, and not as strangers, tenants, or subjects, receives 
further confirmation from the fact that, in the list of those who 
took the oath of allegiance to the old Patroon, their names do 
not appear, nor are they to be found in any record of his busi- 
ness transactions with his tenants. 

Nykirk. We assume, therefore, from these facts, the village of Nykirk 

to have been the ancestral home of the Mullers in Holland. 
There is evidence furnished at a later period that they were 

Property. possessed of property considerable in amount for that very early 
day. 

Cornells ste- The name Cornelis Stephense Muldor shows its possessor to 
have been the son of Stephen Muldor, (Stephense meaning the 
son of Stephen.) 

There is no evidence to be found that Stephen, his father, ever 
came to Albany. 

Cornelis ste- We give, therefore, Cornelis Stephense Muldor as the ancestor 

phense, first. Qf the Mullers in thig country . 

The first trace we have of the family in Albany is in the year 
1683. 1683. 

In the Annals of Albany are to be found translations of the 
Record of Baptisms of the First Dutch Reformed Church of Al- 
bany. Therein we find the following, the year only being given. 
These names are all doubtless Muldor in the original, but appear 
as Mullers i|i the translation. When and how the change from 
Muldor to Muller, and subsequently to Miller, occurred, we are 
unable to say. 



SI 



BAPTTSM OF THE CHILDREN OF CORNELIS STE- 
PHENSE MULDOR AND HILLITIE LOOCKERMANS. 

(We find a record of baptisms of children of Jacobus and iGSc 
Mary Loockermans, probably the parents of Hillitie. Jacobus 
was a deacon in the First Dutch Church in 1700.) 



16S3. Peter Muller, 



16S5. Cornelis Muller, 



By Dominie Godfrey Dellius. 



Cristopel Muller, 



1695. Arriantjie Muller, 



1700. Killianem Muller, 



Nucella. 



Sponsors. 

Anna Van Renselaer, 
Peter Loockermans, 
Killian Van Renselaer. 
Geritt Van Esch, 
Maria Van Esch, his wife. 
Peter Schuyler, 
Anna Van Renselaer. 
Wessel Ten Broeck, 
Catryriche Loockermans, 

his wife. 
Peter Van Brugge, 
Maritjie Schuyler. 



We find no trace of the family again until 1717. In that year 1717. 
Cornelis Stephense, as appears by his will, (a copy of which is 
hereto attached,) resided in Albany, in "the Brewers Street," 
on the river side thereof. The Brewers Street was first known 
as Handlaer Street, then Court, the Brewers, North-Market, 
and now as Broadway. 

On the 22d day of October, 1718, Cornelis Stephense Mulder Oct. 22, 1718. 
purchased of Captain Hendrick Van Renselaer a tract of land 
in the town of Claverack, and, as appears by the will aforesaid, 
resided thereon in that year. 

At that time he had eleven children, and was, doubtless, ad- 
vanced in years. We have no date of his death. His body lies Burial, 
buried with many of his descendants in the family burial-ground, 
still in existence and use, on the farm of Mr. Herman Miller, in 
the field fronting his residence, on the left side of the road lead- 
ing southerly from Claverack village. 

This was the farm upon which Stephanis, the son of Cornelis 
Stephense, settled. 

In the south-west corner of the present orchard of Herman Tradition. 
Miller, it is said, are buried the negroes who died belonging to 
the different members of the family. 

His children were as follows : 



Jeremias, his oldest son, 

Stephanis, 

Johannis, 

Peter, 

Cornelis, 

Jacobus, 

Cristopel, 



Killianem, 

Jannetjie, wife of Peter Hoge- 
boom/ 

Maritjie, wife of Stephanis Van 

Alen, 
Arriantjie. 



82 



Jacobus remained in Albany, and the following records indi- 
cate that Johannis and Cornelis also remained. 
1717 In the year 1717, Johannis Muller, with Jan Van Ness, Chris- 
topel Yetts, and Philip Van Veghte, was appointed Fire Master 
for the Third Ward. 
1759 In 1759, Maria Muller, wife of Cornelis Muller, held pew No. 
30 in the First Dutch Reformed Church. The sexes at that time 
occupied separate seats, , 
1766 In 1766, Cornelis Muller was paid by the city £18 7s. 3d. 
for seventy loads of w T ood for the use of the city watch. 
Killianem is known to have settled in Claverack. 
Christopel and Jeremiah are believed to have done so, the 
former the ancestor of the Races, and the latter of the Hon. John 
J. Miller branch of the family. 

Of the location of the rest of the children we have no informa- 
tion other than what the following records, found in the State 
Historical Department at Albany, give : 

1761, May 28, Gertrey Muller ) 
married to > 
Johannis Hogeboom. ) 

1761, Nov. 24, Peter Muller ) 

tO I ! 

Maria Muller. ) 

1762, Nov. 12, Jeremiah Muller ) 

to [ 5 

Catharine Moore. ) 

1763, , Hillitjie Muller ) 

to [■ 
Stephen Hogeboom. ) 

1764, , .'eremiah Muller ) 

to [• 
Sarah Hogeboom. ) 

1761, Aug. 2, Stephanis Muller 1 

to [■ 

Catharine Mesick. ) 

1771, April 8, Hillitjie Muller, 2d, ) 

to V 
Dirck Van De Kar. ) 

1772, Aug. 2, Christopher Muller ) 

to I 
Lyntjie Muller. ) 

From Killianem came 
1st. Jehoiakim Muller, father of Hon. Killian Miller, of Hudson. 

Dr. Jacob Miller, of New-York. 
John Miller, of Greenbush. 



83 



2d. Cornelius, a lunatic. 

3d. John, supposed to have died in the British army. 

The above are all the facts relative to the family interested, 
which up to this time have come to light. These have been ob- 
tained from sources deemed trustworthy, and the information 
they furnish may be accepted as nearly correct as can at this late 
day be obtained. 

We give the genealogy below complete, as far as ascertained. GeneaJ °sy- 
It is possible from these data other branches may be traced here- 
after. 

Stephanis Muldor. Nykirk or Niewkirk, in the province of Gel- 
derland, Holland, twenty-five miles south- 
west of Amsterdam. 

2. 

Cornells Stephense Muldor ) 1651, or a period within 

married > Albany. 

Hillitjie Loockermans. ) a few years thereafter. 



Stephanis Muller 

married 
Maritjie Whitbeck. 

Children of Stephanis, (3.) 

(A.) Cornelius S. Muller ) 
married > 
Rachel Hogeboom. ) 



Claverack. 1718. 



Rachel Hogeboom was the daugh- 
ter of Cornelius Hogeboom and 
Lana Johnson, the latter, it is said, 
connected with a family by the 
name of Jeremiah Johnson, of Wil- 
liamsburg or Brooklyn. 

Cornelius S. lived upon the farm 
now owned by Mr. Robert Essel- 
styne, in the old house for many 
years occupied by Mr. E. A part 
of the house is known to be more 
than a century old. 

Cornelius S. was one of the Vigi- 
lance Committee during the Revo- 
lution, appointed to arrest Tories, 
who were confined in the cellar of 
the old mansion now occupied by 
Mr. Jeremiah M. Race. He was an 



84 



G-eaealogy. 



(B.) 



(C.) 



Stephanis Muller 

married 
Catharine Mesick. 

Hendrick Muller 
married 
Arriantjie Van Deusen. 



(D.) 



(E.) 



(F.) 



Jeremiah Muller 

married 
Katrine Moore. 

Peter Muller 
married 
Maritjie Kittle. 

Hillitjie Muller 

married 
Jacobus Muller. 
(Branch unknown.) 



(G.) Gertromo Muller 
married 
John Hogeboom. 

(H.) Lisbat Muller. 

(T.) Lyntjie Muller 
married 
Ropie Van Duzer. 



ardent Democrat — a working poli- 
tician. After a sharp contest at 
the polls, in which he was at one 
time successful, he was placed in 
a gig and drawn home by the 
young men of the town, among 
whom was the late Joseph D. Mo- 
nell, Esq., of Hudson. 



Settled either in Albany or 
Greenbush. 



Lived in the old house standing 
by the creek, for many years occu- 
pied by Mr. John Sharp, nearly 
opposite the present residence of 
Mr. Robert Esselstyne. Hendrick 
had two sons, Cornelius and Ste- 
phen ; the latter the father of Ma- 
ria, the wife of Augustus Mills, a 
lady highly esteemed in Claverack. 



Settled, it is said, in Greenbush, 



Settled in the neighborhood of 
Stone Mills. 



Settled on farm afterward known 
as the Benner Place, m the eastern 
part of the town. 



Settled in the north part of the 
town. 

Died at the age of sixteen. 
Settled in the Van Deusen neigh- 



85 



borhood, in the south-west pftrt of Genealogy, 
the town. 

4. 

^ Children of Cornelius S. Muller (A) and Rachel Hogeboom. . 
(J.) Stephen Miller } 
married > 
Jannetjie Esselstyne. ) Daughter of Cornelius Miller 
(branch unknown) and Cornelia 
Esselstyne. 

Settled on farm now known as 
the residence of Mr. S. M. Van 
Wyck. 

His children were : 

1. Rachel, mother of Mr. S. M. 
Van Wyck. 

2. William, no descendants. 

3. Cornelius, father of Hon. 
Theodore Miller, etc., Hudson. 

4. Stephen, father of Mr. Jacob 
W. Miller, etc., Claverack. 

5. Cornelia, married first Ells- 
worth Beekman, afterward James 
Ludlum. Descendants in New- 
Jersey. 

Stephen was held a prisoner by the British for a period of six 
months during the Revolution, then a young man. He was 
captured by the Indians near Albany, and afterward escaped by 
running, while sent out to cut grass. 

(K.) Cornelius C. S. Miller ) 
married V 
Albertie Van Valkenburgh. ) Daughter of Henry Van Valken- 

burgh and Annetjie Van Derpoel, 
of Kinderhook. 

He resided on a portion of the 
present Robert Esselstyne farm, on 
the hill, where his daughter Maria 
still lives. His children were : . 

1. Rachel, wife of Mr. John 
Gaul, deceased, of Hudson,- father 
of Hon. John Gaul, Jr., etc. 

2. Nancy, wife of Mr. Jacob 
Whitbeck, of Claverack. 

3. Jane, second wife of Mr. John 
Gaul. 



86 



Genealogy. 



(L.) 



Jeremiah Miller 
married 
Cornelia Esselstyne. 



(M.) 



(N.) 



Peter Miller 

married 
Rebecca Spohr. 



Maritjie Miller 
married 
Tobias Hogeboom. 



4. Maria, unmarried. 

5. Cornelius, married Cornelia 
Skinkle, descendants in Wayne 
county, N. Y. , and Michigan. 

6. Henry C, lately deceased, oi 
Hudson. 

7. Magdalen, wife of Mr. George 
Philip Horton, of Philmont. 

8. Annie, unmarried, deceased. 

9. Albertjie, unmarried, died 
young. 



Daughter of Richard Esselstyne, 
of Claverack. 

He resided at Nobletown, (now 
in Hillsdale.) His children were : 
Rachel, Maria, Margaret, Richard, 
John, and Stephen. Descendants 
not known. 



Settled in the Red Mills neigh- 
borhood. 

His children were : Rachel, Cor- 
nelia, and Cornelius. No descend- 
ants known to be living. 



Settled in the north part of the 
town. 

His children were: Peter and 
Lana. No descendants known to 
be living;. 



(0.) Lana (or Magdalen) Miller 
married 
Douw Fonda. 



Settled near the Stone Mills. 
No children. 



5. 



Cornelius S. Miller 

married 
Cummatjie Bronk. 



His second wife, a resident of 
Coxsackie. His children were : 
1. Jonas, who married Catharine 



87 



(Cumtnatjie was baptized on 
the day of the dedication 
of the present Claverack 
church — a century ago.) 

Cornelius S. Miller 
married 
Gertrude Van De Kar. 



fj 

HI 

IN THE NAME OF GOD AMEN 

The three and Twentieth day of February in the fifth year of the Reign 
of our Soveraign Lord George by the Grace of God of Great Brittain france 
& Ireland King Defender of the faith &a. and in the year of our Lord Christ 
one thousand seven hundred Eighteen and Nineteen, I Cornelis Stephense 
Mulder of Claverak in the Mannor of Renselaerswyck in the County of Al- 
bany yeoman being in good health and of sound and perfect memory 
(thanks be to almighty god for the same) and calling to mind the Uncertain 
State of this Transitory life and that all flesh on Earth must yield to Death, 
when it shall please god to Call, and being desireous to setle things in 
order Doe make this my last will & Testament in manner & form following. 
Revoakeing and absolutely annulling by these presents all and every Tes- 
tament and Testaments will and wills heretofore by me made and declared; 
Either by word or by writeing notwithstanding any Promise to the Contra- 
ry or Clause derogatory in the same, and this to be taken, only for my 
Last will and Testament and none other, first I bequeave my Soul to al- 
mighty god my maker and to Jesus Christ my Redeemer and to the holy 
Ghost my Sanctifyer and my body to the Earth from whence it came to be 
bunyed in a decent and Christian manner, there to Rest untill my soul and 
body shall meet again, and be Joyned together att the joyfull Resurrection, 
and be made partakers of the never fadeing joys of unmortallity which god in 
mercy thro' the merrits of Jesus Christ alone hath promised and prepared 
for all those that truly & unfeignedley Repent and beleeve in him and 
Touching such Temporall Estate of Land houses goods and Chattels as the 
Lord hath been Pleased farr above my deserts to bestow upon me I Doe 
order give bequeave and dispose of the same in manner and form following. 

2dly I Give and bequeave unto my Eldest Son Jeremias Mulder one 
horse or ten pounds Currant money of the Colony of New }'-ork to be paid 
or deliverd unto him out of my Estate before any Division is to be made, 
in Right of his Premiginitor or first born, and that he shall make no further 
pretence on my Estate but to be satisfy ed with that share or portion as. 
hereafter shall be made to him — 

3dly I Give and bequeave unto my Daughter Arrieahfje 'MuIcTer a ni'i; 
and Convenient out sett (provided she doth not marry before my decease) 



Race. His descendants reside in Genealogy, 
Vfayne county. 

2. Annetjie, unmarried. 



From Half Moon, Saratoga Co. 
His third wife, by whom there 
were no children. 



88 



to be deliverd unto her by my Executors hereafter named, out of my Estate 
before any Division is to be made — 

4thly I Doe give make and bequeave (for the Consideration hereafter 
mentioned) unto my four Sons Stephanis Mulder Cornells Mulder Christo- 
pel Mulder and Killiaen Mulder their heirs and assigns for Ever all my Land 
and woodland Scituate lying and being at Claverak in the mannor aforesaid 
with the house barn Barraks orchard and other the premises and appurte- 
nances thereunto belonging as the same was made over and granted unto 
me by Capt, Hendrick van Renselaer on the two & twentieth day of Octo- 
ber one thousand seaven hundred & Eighteen as by the Indenture thereof 
may more fully and at Large appear, for which the sd. Stephanis Mulder 
Christophel Mulder Cornells Mulder and Killiaen Mulder their heirs Execu- 
tors or administrators shall pay or Cause to be paid unto my Children 
herafter named (viz.) Jeremias Mulder Peter Mulder Jacob Mulder Johan- 

a Killian Mulder 

nis Mulder a Jannetie wife of Peter Hoogeboom, Maritie wife of Stephanis 
van Alen and Arriaentie Mulder their and every of their Respective heirs 
Executors admrs. or assigns Each and every one of them an Equall just 
Eleventh part of the sume of four hundred and fifty Pounds Currant money 
of New york aforesaid on or before four years after my decease 

othly I Doe Give make and bequeave unto my Son Johannis Mulder his 
heirs and assigns for Ever my house and Lott of Ground Scituate Lying and 
being in the City of Albany in the Brewers Street on the west side thereot 
having on the north the house and Lott of my Son Jacob Mulder on the 
south the house and Lott of Samuel Pruyn on the East and west the Comon 
Streets on Condition that he my said Son Johannis Mulder his heirs Execu- 
tors or administrators shall pay or cause to be paid unto my ten Children 
hereafter named viz Jeremias Mulder Stephanis Mulder, Peter Mulder, Cor- 
nelis Mulder, Jacob Mulder, Christophel Mulder, Killiaen Mulder, Jannetie 
wife of Peter Hoogeboom, Marritie wife of Stephanis van Alen and Arrie- 
aentje Mulder their and every of their Respective heirs Executors admrs. or 
assigns Each and Every of them an Equall just Eleventh part of one hun- 
dred and ten Pounds Currant money aforesaid on or before four years after 
my decease 

Gthly My will and Desire is and I Do order that after my decease all 
my goods and Chattels and moveable Estate of what kind or nature the 
same may be and as then shall be found shall be Equally divided among 
my aforesaid Eleven Children their Respective heirs or assigns share and 
share alike, — 

It is my Expresse will and desire and I doe order that who of my said 
four sons that shall happen to Possess and Enjoy the house and hoffstead 
at Claverak aforesaid where I now life shall be oblidged to keep maintain 
and support my said son Peter Mulder (who is non Compus mentus) dureing 
his naturall life with good Cloathing meat drink washing & Lodgeing for 
which such of my said sons shall have & Receive the Eleventh part of the 



89 



money and moveable Estate which my said Son Peter is to have & Receive, 
in case no such maintenance as aforesaid — 

And my will and desire is that in case any of my said four Sons Called 
Stephanis, Cornelis, Christophel, or Killiaen Mulder shall be Inclind or 
willing to dispose or sell his share in the house and land at Claverak afore- 
said above given and bequeathed unto him such son shall be oblidged to 
sell and dispose his share & Right to his other three Brethren Last named- 
and that for such a sum of money as his other Brethren & Sisters or the 
major part of them shall appraize such share to be worth, which if they 
Refuze to pay that then such son shall be at Liberty to dispose and sell 
the same to any other person as he shall think fitt & convenient And 
Lastly I Doe make Consitute and appoint my Sons Jeremias Mulder and 
Stephanis Mulder to be Executors and administrators of this my Last will 
and Testament In Testimony Whereof I the said Cornelis Stephense Mul- 
der have hereunto sett my hand and seale the day and year above written 
N B. that the word Killiaen Mulder was Interlind between the fifteenth 
& sixteenth line in the fourth article before signing & sealing 

Cornelis Stephense 
Signd seald publishdand Declard) Muldor 
in the presence of us. f 

Samuel Pruyen 

Pieter Winne 

Philip Livingston 



[The following paper was contributed by William Leggett Bramhall, 
Esq:] 

HOGEBOOM FAMILY. 

Jeremiah and Johannes were two sons of Killian Hogeboom, (or as the 
name is now spelled in Holland, Hogen Boom.) Jeremiah, it appears, was 
born in Holland on the 5th of April, 1712, and accompanied his father to 
this country, where he settled in the town of Claverack, on the site of the 
present village of that name. There was born the younger son, Johannes, 
who married Albertie, daughter of Johannes and Sara Van Alen, of Kinder- 
hook, and had by her seven sons and four daughters : Johannes, Bartholo- 
mew, Cornelius, Lawrence, Peter, Abraham, James, Johanache, Heleche, 
Albertie, Catherine. He (Johannes) afterward moved to the north-eastern 
part of the town, and settled on the site of the houses subsequently built 
by his son Lawrence, and grandson, Tobias L. Hogeboom, in the present 
town of Ghent, which was set off on the 3d of April, 1818. Here his sons 
settled around him, Lawrence taking that portion of the old farm now 
partly covered by the lower part of the village of Claverack, until about 
1767, when he sold it, and removed to his father's residence. The 
daughters, Helache and Catherine, married, and removed to Schoharie 
county; Johanache married Judge Jeremiah Miller, and continued to re- 
side in Claverack, between that village and Mellenville ; and Albertie 
married Hon. Peter Van Ness, and lived in Kinderhook, on the place since 
occupied by Martin Van Buren, and called Lindenwald. James, the 



90, 



younger son, married Albertie Van Alen of Kinderhook, and lived in 
Claverack until about 1800, when he removed to Austerlitz, and thence to 
Mayneld, Montgomery county. 

Lawrence married Hester, daughter of John Leggett, of that part of the 
town known as West-Ghent, their old homestead. Their three eldest 
children, John L., Albertine, and James L., were born in the present vil- 
lage of Claverack, and the others, Tobias L., Bata, Peter L., and Lawrence, 
were born in the "old stone house" in the present town of Ghent. Jo- 
hannes married Gertrude, daughter of Stephen Miller of Claverack, and 
settled about half a mile to the north-east of his father's, where his seven 
children were born. Abraham married Maria, daughter of Jacob Vosburgh, 
of Kinderhook, and settled on the site of the present county-house in 
Ghent, where his ten children were born. Cornelius Hogeboom married 
Sarah, daughter of Sarah Vosburgh, of Kinderhook, and lived in a stone 
house to the north-west of his father's, where were born to him four chil- 
dren. He was shot at Hillsdale by the anti-renters, while on duty as 
Sheriff of the county, and died in October, 1791, in the forty-fifth year of 
his age, his widow outliving him but a few months, and dying of grief in the 
following January. His youngest son, John C, then Deputy-Sheriff, was 
appointed to succeed him. He was then twenty-three years of age, and 
had been three years married to Margaret Van Vleck, by whom he had 
seven children, all born in Claverack. Ann, the fifth child, married the 
late Prof. Porter, of Yale College ; and Henry, the youngest and only sur- 
vivor, is an able and honored jurist of the Supreme Courjt. John C. was 
elected to the Assembly in 1796, and served three years ; was chosen one 
of the Council of Appointment in February, 1803 ; served in the State 
Senate 1801-4, and in 1812 was chosen one of the presidential electors, 
when he cast his vote for Clinton and Ingersoll. 5e died in the house in 
which he was born, in June, 1840, aged seventy-two years. Bartholomew 
married Sally Van Valkenburgh, and resided about a mile to the eastward 
of the old homestead. He had nine children, one of whom, Albertie, mar- 
ried John J. Vosburgh, and has numerous descendants. 

Jeremiah Hogeboom, son of Killian and brother of Johannes, was born 
in Holland on the 5th of April, 1712, and settled with his brother in Cla- 
verack. His son Peter was born in January, 1753, married Hannah 
Dutcher, and removed after the war of 1812 to Canada, where he died in 
June, 1843. He had two daughters, who did not survive him, and one son, 
George, now a resident of Grand Rapids, Mich. 

Peter's elder brother, Stephen, continued to reside, and finally died, on 
his father's farm at Claverack. He was a member of the fourteenth session 
of the Assembly in 1791 ; of the sixteenth, in 1792-3 ; of the nineteenth, 
in 1796 ; of the Constitutional Convention in 1801, which met at Albany, 
Oct. 13th, and adjourned Oct. 27th. In 1805 he was elected to the State 
Senate, and served four years therein. 

He left six children : Christina, who married John Russell, of Troy ; 
Jenny ; Polly ; Nancy, who married Benjamin Moore, of Newtown, L. I. ; 



91 



Catherine, who married Gen. Samuel B. Webb, father of James Watson 
Webb, and grandfather of Major-Gens. A. S. Webb and Geo. W. Morell ; 
and Killian, who kept the old homestead, married a daughter of Captain 
John Mills, a retired officer of the British army, and served in the 
Assembly in 1798 and 1799. He left four children, Charlotte Mary ; Eliza 
Caroline ; Stephen K., who inherited the farm of his father ; and John. 

Stephen K. was born in 1802, married Mary Elizabeth, daughter of John 
I. Miller, and had seven children. He sold his farm in Claverack in 1866, 
and was the last Hogeboom to leave it. 

GENEALOGY IN PART OF HOGEBOOM FAMILY. 
[Furnished by Hon. Henry Hogeboom.] 
Johannes Hogeboom married Albertie, daughter of Johannes Van 
Allen. 

Their children were : 
Johannes Hogeboom, (C,) 
Abraham Hogeboom, 
Bartholomew Hogeboom, 

Cornelius Hogeboom, (A,) father of John C. and grandfather of Henry. 
Lawrence Hogeboom, (B,) father of Tobias L. and grandfather of John T. 
Peter Hogeboom. 
James Hogeboom. 
Jannetie Hogeboom, 

Helletie Hogeboom, who married Jacob Huyck. 

Albertie Hogeboom. I think (not certain) that it was one of these sis- 
ters who married Peter Van Ness, of Kinder- 
hook, father of 

General John P. Van Ness, Mayor of Washington. 

William P. Van Ness, United States District 
Judge of New-York, 
second of Aaron Burr 
in duel with Hamilton. 

Cornelius P. Van Ness, Minister to Spain and 
Collector of New-York. 

Catharine Hogeboom married Huyck. 

(C) Johannes Hogeboom married Gertrude Miller, daughter of Stephen, 
and had several children — Stephen, Albertie, 
Helletie, Polly, Sarah, John, Gertrude. 

(A) Cornelius Hogeboom (son of Johannes) was born July 2d, 1739, was 
married to Sarah Vosburgh July 14th, 1761 ; was 
shot and killed in Nobletown (Hillsdale) October 
22d, 1791, being then Sheriff of the county of 
Columbia. 

Sarah Vosburg (wife of Cornelius Hogeboom) was born Novem- 

ber 21st, 1733, and died January 16th, 1792. 

Their children were : 



92 



Richard 0. Hogeboom, 



Peter C. Hogeboom, 
Alida Hogeboom, 
John C. Hogeboom, 



who married Jane Hoes, sister of the late Lucas 
Hoes, of Kinderhook. 
who married (I think) Atty Van Allen, 
who married John Hoes. 

who married Margaret Van Slyck. J.' C. H. was 
twice or more sheriff of Columbia, once (I think) 
Member of Assembly, once (or more) State Sena- 
tor ; Member of the Council of Appointment ; an 
intimate friend of old George Clinton and of De 
Witt Clinton, Ambrose Spencer, Judge Van 
Ness, and others. 

John C. Hogeboom was born April 15th, 1768. Died June 21st, 1840. 
His wife, Margaret Van Slyck, was born February 2d, 1766. Died April 
22d, 1841. 

They were married March 5 th, 1787. 
Their children were : 

born July 5 th, 1789. Died December 7th, 1813. 
born February 21st, 1794. Died (I think) March, 
1859 ; married (I think in 1817) to Abraham 
A. Van Buren, (brother of President Martin Van 
Buren;) afterward married, in 1841, to Rev. 
George H. Fisher. 

born September 2d, 1791. Died February 13, 1819. 
born December 21st, 1796. Died May 30th, 1857. 
He married Martha Peck, of New-Haven, (I think 
in 1822,) by whom he had several children — 
Margaret, Harriet, John Henry, and William B. 
The latter died in the war of the rebellion, 
born April 30th, 1799. Died, I think, in 1848 or 
1849. She married Addison Porter, (I think in 
Ocfober, 1820J and had several children — John 
Addison Porter, (afterward professor at Yale 
College ;) Sarah Ann, who married Van Dyck, 
and subsequently Campbell ; Catharine, who 
married Professor George M. Greene ; William 
A., lawyer at Chicago ; Henry ; Jane Eliza, who 
married Grant; Charles H., afterward Professor 
at Albany and at Middlebury. 
born August 18th, 1803. Died September 23d, 
1841. He married Ann Halbert and had child- 
ren, who are all dead. 

born February 25th, 1809. Married Jane Eliza 
Rivington, daughter of Colonel James Rivington, 
and granddaughter of old John Rivington, (the 
king's printer,) of New-York. She died March 
25th, 1858, at Hudson. 



Cynthia Hogeboom, 
Catharine Hogeboom, 



Sarah Hogeboom, 
Cornelius Hogeboom, 



Ann Hogeboom, 



Peter Hogeboom, 



Henry Hogeboom, 



93 



1 i Their children were : 
Susan Rivington Hoge- 
boom, born September 29th, 1833, who married William 

Boirs, of Northampton, September 21st, 1859, and 

has two children living. 
John C. Hogeboom, born February 8th, 1837, who married Clara, 

daughter of Charles Esselstyn, May 15th, 1862. 

They have no children living. 
Margaret Hogeboom, unmarried. 

(B) Lawrence Hogeboom, (son of Johannes,) born . Died March 

14th, 1805. Married Hester Leggett, daughter of 
John. She was born July, 1739. Died March 
11th, 1832. 

Their children were : John L., Albertine, James L., who was Member 
of Congress from Rensselaer county, and lived at 
Castleton. 

Tobias L., who lived at Ghent, and was father of Helen, 

wife of Dr. James Hogeboom, of Castleton ; Eliza, 
wife of Dr. Charles H. Bramhall, just deceased ; 
Joseph John Tobias, born January 31st, 1816, now 
of New-York, General Appraiser in Custom-House, 
and formerly Member of Assembly and County 
Judge of Columbia. 
Tobias L. was born November 2d, 1770, and died June 14th, 1849. He 
married Eliza Power, daughter of Joseph Power. 

I am myself unable to trace the genealogy of the branches of the Hoge- 
boom family collateral to my own, and must refer you for information to 
Mrs. Tobias L. Hogeboom, of Ghent or New-York, and William Leggett 
Bramhall, son of Charles H. Bramhall, Esq., of No. 154 East Forty-ninth 
street, New-York, who has taken pains to collect many facts in regard to 
our genealogy. 

The Hogebooms, however, were among the respectable and prominent 
families of Claverack. 

It was of a Peter Hogeboom that Claverack Landing (now Hudson) was 
in part bought. 

Stephen Hogeboom was, as you know, the father of 

Mrs. Webb, mother of James Watson Webb ; 

Mrs. Thomas, whose husband was, I think, General Thomas ; 

Mrs. Russell, mother of Ambrose S. Russell; 

Mrs. Moore, of Claverack ; 

William Hogeboom, father of Stephen K. Hogeboom. 

Judge John J. Miller's mother was, I think, a Hogeboom, or one of the 
Hogebooms married his sister. 

The Hogebooms were also intermarried with the Storms of Mellenville. - 



94 



In addition to the above, Mr. Stephen B. Miller furnishes some informa- 
tion of the intermarriage, at earlier dates, between the Hogebooms and the 
Millers, thus : 

1. In 1717, Cornelius Stephense Miller had a daughter, Jannetie, who was 
the wife of Peter Hogeboom. 

2. His son Stephanus had a son, Cornelius S., who married Rachel Hoge- 
boom, daughter of Cornelius Hogeboom and Sara Johnson. 

3. Stephanus had also a daughter, Gertrau or Gertrude, who married 
John Hogeboom, who settled in the north part of the town. 

(These are probably the same persons mentioned on the first page of my 
genealogy (C) as Johannes Hogeboom and Gertrude Miller. They lived 
over the hill, east of Tobias L. Hogeboom' s.) 

4. Cornelius L. had a daughter, Maritie, who married Tobias Hogeboom, 
and I am unable to tell whose son the latter was. 

5. Cornelius S. Miller's son, Killianem, (probably Killian,)had a daugh- 
ter, Helletie, who married a Stephen Hogeboom. 

Jehoiakim A. Van Yalkenburgh (formerly County Clerk of this county) 
informed me that he was connected by blood or marriage — I think by 
blood, through his mother — with Peter Macy Hogeboom. 

I am sorry not to be able to trace the history of my family further. I 
might have obtained much information about it doubtless, from my father, 
(who died in June, 1840,) but I neglected to do so, and have derived most 
of what I do know about it from Mrs. Tobias L. Hogeboom, or through 
her, whose memory, though she is now quite advanced, was, when I last 
saw her, still very excellent. Yours truly, 

Hudson, September 6, 1867. H. Hogeboom. 

Rev. E. S. Porter. 



MR. DICKIE'S NOTE. 
Rev. Dr. E. S. Porter : Claverack, August 30, 1867. 

Dear Sir : In your able address, delivered at our centennial celebration 
day before yesterday, I discovered that you, in searching over our his- 
tory, found among other names that of my revered grandfather, Caspar 
Conyne, (or, as it was written in his day, Kasparis Konyne,) as one worthy 
of notice. 

If not out of place, I would like to make mention of an incident in his 
life that the family have always looked upon as one of some importance. 
During the darkest period of our Revolution he (at that time holding a 
commission of captain) received a furlough, came home to visit his family, 
and while there, reposing in his own house, about midnight, a noise was 
heard by his wife. She awoke him, telling him she believed there were 
robbers in the house. They sprang up and found the house surrounded. 
Every window had a sentinel, and they found it too late to give an alarm. 



95 



The robbers, or Tories, as they were called, had already entered the house. 
They carried away every available thing they could, and such as they 
could not, destroyed. They emptied the cream-pots upon the floors and 
the feathers from the beds, mixing them together. They took such arti- 
cles as jewelry, going to one of the family and taking hold of her hand, 
asking her for her diamond ring, she having, while they were there, slip- 
ped it from her finger and put it in her bosom. She gave some reason 
that saved the ring. Among the articles taken by them were a pair of 
gold sleeve-buttons belonging to grandfather, and eight hundred dollars in 
money. At last they had grandfather taken into a room, and, with a cord 
from his drum, fastening to a beam above, hung him by the neck; but in 
jerking the chair from under him the rope broke, and that saved his life. 
They then had him, with all the family, taken to the cellar of the house, 
and locked them in. While there, they heard the tread of the sentinels 
passing the window of the cellar. Grandfather about this time, taking an 
iron bar, broke open the door, ran up, and out the door, to the road, found 
a man just then passing on horseback, caught hold of the bridle, and in- 
quired who he was. He found him to be a neighbor ; invited him to come 
in and see what had been done. 

The following morning, as the family gathered around the breakfast- 
table, Kasparis Konyne offered thanks to God that they had their barns 
filled, (it being fall, or the fore part of winter,) but, sad to say, shortly 
after, their barns were burnt, with the contents. The barn built by him 
in its stead is still standing upon the place now occupied by John W. 
Jenkins. For all this he never received any other compensation than the 
reward of having a clear consciousness of having served his country during 
the darkest days of the Revolution. 

Among those guilty of this, but two were ever discovered, convicted, 
and found guilty. Having a flag of his in their possession, they were found 
guilty and hanged. Others not far off were suspected. I, having had this 
handed down, have watched the dealings of God in his providence, and think 
I see a confirmation of the truth " that the wicked shall not go unpunished." 

Should you think any part of this of interest worth publishing with the 
interesting matter of our centennial celebration, it is yours. 

I remain yours very respectfully, John H. Dickie. 




* 



